Love, Hate, War and Family
by Lysistrate
Summary: When the Volturi comes to "investigate" the rare case of Renesmee, Bella summons her family to reveal a secret about her past that can help defending her family. The problem is that Bella s plan will make war unavoidable. Longer summery inside.
1. Summery and Prolouge

**Summery  
**When the Volturi comes to "investigate" the rare case of Renesmee, Bella summons her family to reveal a secret about her past that can help defending her family. The problem is that Bella s plan will make war unavoidable and also change the life of her family forever. Can the Cullen´s accept Bella´s new past or will they turn away from her? A story about Love, Hate, Family and unbreakable bonds. Set during Breaking Dawn.

This is my first Fan-Fiction so be a little nice to me ;) Also I´m sorry for any misspellings but English is not my first language.

**Disclamer: I do not own Twilight. It Belongs to Stephenie Meyer.**

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**Prolouge  
(A few days before Breaking Dawn)**

With a small smile playing on my lips I looked at all the presents that had been arriving to the Cullen's mansion the last week. It was only two days left before my and Edward´s wedding. Even though I had been negative towards the whole idea in the beginning, I was extremely happy. That I, Bella Swan, had been able to capture the heart of the most stunning and wonderful man/vampire on this earth was still hard for me to understand. Personally I couldn´t understand how Edward could love someone as plain as me, even though I knew he didn´t see me as plain and I also knew he thought I didn´t see myself clearly. I knew that he loved me as much as I loved him but it was hard for me to truly understand how that was possible. Still I had proof right in front me in the form of wedding presents. The presents from my family and friends were covering the tables that had been put into this room just a few days ago. A feeling of great happiness came over me and once again a smile came to my lips.

Suddenly Alice appeared in the door with a small package in her hand. Her sudden appearance made me jump because I hadn´t heard her coming. This made a huge smile spread over her face. She thought it was funny that I became more nervous and lost in my own thoughts the closer we came to the wedding.

"This came just now, it´s for you", she said with the smile still on her face.

"Thanks Al", I said as I took the brown little box she gave me.

"Well what are sisters for. So how does it feel knowing you soon will be a Cullen?" Alice said with so much excitement I felt sorry for Jasper downstairs.

"I thought I already was considered as a Cullen Alice", I said putting on a sad face.

Alice giggled and soon I was laughing as well, we both knew everyone already did consider me as family._ Well almost everyone _I thought to myself when Rosalie came to my mind.

"You know we all sees you as family Bella, it´s just Edward who is so stubborn with the whole old ceremonies thingy." She said roiling her eyes, although I knew Alice would have killed Edward slowly if he had taken away her chance to plan a wedding.

"Well I understand him, I mean he was raised during a time when marriage was very important, and it will be nice to be officially a Cullen." I said with a smile.

"I wonder if it is the last name you're after or getting my brother to finally drop those boundaries of his so you can get some..."

"ALICE!!!" I shrieked as I heard Emmet´s booming laughter echoing through the whole house.

"What Bella I ´m just telling the truth and I think you have been very tense this last week, maybe you´re just nervous for the honeymoon", she said with a sly but knowing look in her face.

For the first time since I met Alice I really wanted to throw something at her, even though that wouldn't hurt her. She knew very well that the rest of the family was sitting in the living room downstairs and could hear every single word we said. Emmet only confirmed this fact by laughing even harder and I could also hear some more voices joining him. Suddenly this conversation had become extremely embarrassing and I felt how a scarlet red blush started to creep up my cheeks.

"Alright enough with teasing the soon to be bride", I heard a velvet voice saying behind Alice and there stood my own personal god. Edward´s bronze hair was just as messy as always and he was wearing my favorite crooked grin, his golden eyes were a little firm as he looked at his favorite sister but the amusement was still shining through them together with the happiness they had held ever since I said yes to his proposal.

"I´m just stating facts and besides it´s about time you to lose your 108 year old virginity" Alice said and managed to escape through the door right before Edward grabbed her. When she was gone Edward turned to me and embraced me in his arms. He buried his nose in my hair and took a deep breath, breathing in my sent. I knew how much this closeness pained him because of his never-ending thirst for my blood. Still I felt more at home, here, in his arms than I had ever felt before, I felt whole and the small aching in my heart that always was there then he was gone disappeared.

"You know I love you right?" he said as I lifted my head and meet his golden eyes.

"Yes, I do. And I love you too. More than anything" I said closing my eyes as his lips meet mine. After all this time still nothing could be more heavenly than Edwards's lips on my one. The kiss was short and sweet but it wasn´t hard to feel the love radiating from both of us, and somewhere in the back of my head I thought about how this affected Jasper, but that was a very small part. When we ended the kiss I looked up in Edward´s eyes for a second before resting my head against his chest, closing my eyes. Edward kissed the top of my head, lingering a little with his lips, and I let out a small content sigh, this was heaven. When I opened my eyes they landed on the small package Alice had come in with earlier and for the first time I saw there was a small letter hanging on the package addressed to_ Isabella Marie Swan. _Suddenly my whole body stiffened, I recognized that handwriting but I had never thought I would see it again. I felt my eyes growing big as my mind was trying to take in the information. Edward´s body tensed as well.

"Love, what is it? Bella?" Edward said but his voice was very far away right now. How was it possible after all these years? How could she know I was getting married and where in the world had she been all these years!!!? Would she come to the wedding? Why? How? When? Countless of questions appeared in my head. Suddenly I heard more voices around me, all of them concerned.

"What happened?"

"I don´t know. Suddenly she just became really stiff and looked like she saw a ghost and completely froze. After that I couldn´t get any contact with her and that were five minutes ago! Carlisle, tell me what´s wrong with her!?"

"I'm fine," I whispered. All of the Cullen family was staring at me with worried expressions on their faces, even Rosalie.

"I´m fine I just… it´s nothing I just need some time alone to think, please?" My voice was very distant and barely above a whisper just like my mind in that moment. Everyone around me were in a blur and all I wanted was for them to leave so I could read that letter and open the package.

"Bella you´re whiter than a vampire, I don´t think you should be left..."

"I said I need time alone Edward!" I screamed at him which caused him to take a small step backwards, startled, as everyone's faces turned from concern to shock, and in Edwards chase sorrow. For a moment I was a little shocked myself. I never screamed at Edward unless I had a very good reason, which I didn´t have right now, at least not in the Cullens eyes.

"This has to do with the package which came earlier, hasn't it?" Alice said and I felt myself stiffen again and the little color left leaving my face. How could I have forgotten about Alice´s visions? They weren't meant to find the truth this way, I knew they would all hate me, leave me and…

"I only see you opening the letter and the package Bella, nothing more. Please calm down you´re giving us all a heart attack, especially Edward. We´ll all leave if you promise us that you´ll be alright." Alice said her voice thick with fear and worry. Fear? Why fear? What did I look like?

Alice´s statement made Edward glare at her but she gave him meaning look. Numbly I nodded my head to assure them I would be alright and without another word they all left the room, although I got one last worried look from Edward before he closed the door behind him.

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Not wasting a second I rushed to the table and opened the package, that now was my biggest concern, and lifted up the beautiful piece of jewelry that I knew would be hiding in there. It was a necklace that had a long thin silvery chain. I knew the chain had been picked out so you could hide the stone which hang from it under your shirt or dress. The stone looked like a diamond and reflected the small light in the room. The stone didn´t have a specific form but it had an oval shape. It had countless of cracks on the inside, but none of them had affected the outside which still was smooth and perfect. The stone itself had the same color as a diamond, while the cracks on the inside were blood red. I picked up the stone in my hand and the movement made the cracks look like they were moving. Without second thought I put on the necklace and let the stone slide down under my shirt, stopping a little under my bra. I picked up the letter and opened the envelope with my fingers. I began to read:

_Dear Isabella_

_I heard that you are getting married. I am so happy that you finally have found true love, since we both know a vampire only truly loves his mate. Yes, I know your fiancé is a vampire, as you know I have my sources. You also know I only care about your happiness and I know that your Edward will give you that and more. No one in this world deserves happiness more than you do.  
You know I have never liked writing long essays instead of speaking to someone in person, so, I am just going to say: I love you and if you ever need me you know how to reach me.  
Watch your back and protect your family at all costs! Don´t trust anyone!_

_Much Love M.I.S.T_

_P.S I am sorry you haven't heard from me but you know how easily I forget the time. ;)_

A few tears had escaped my eyes as I read the letter. The words had warmed my heart and it as a huge relief knowing I had the approval from the one person I wanted approval from. But the knowledge of that Edward or anyone else in my family never could read this letter was heavy. This secret had to come from me when the time was right which it wasn´t right now but it would be. With a deep breath I placed one hand on the stone which now hang on my chest. _I miss you, so much _I thought. I took another deep breath and headed towards the door. I was going to apologize to my family for my previous behavior.

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**So I hope you liked the first chapter. Please tell me if I should continue writing on this story or not.**

**/Lysistrate**


	2. Memories and Decisions

**Disclamer: I do not own Twilight. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer.**

Carefully I placed my beautiful daughter, my Renesmee, in her bed. She had fallen asleep in my arms when we made our way towards our house, or cottage as Edward called it. I wanted her to sleep in a peaceful environment instead of the Cullen´s now overcrowded mansion. I also wanted her to get away from all the planning on how we could make the Volturi listen to us instead of killing us. Quietly I walked out from Renemee´s room and out into the small garden behind mine and Edward's bedroom. With a sigh I leaned against the wall, a reaction I did without thinking, in my tries to behave more human.

After Edward´s and my wedding we had went to Isle Esme for our honeymoon. There I had experienced the best weeks of my intertie human life. It was also during these weeks I had become pregnant with Renesmee, a huge shook for everyone in my family. Edward and I had immediately traveled home, where I had searched the protection of Rosalie, since Edward and the rest of my family where ready to take out the miracle inside of me. During my pregnancy Rose and I had really bonded, though we´re still not as close as me and Alice, but perhaps in the future. _If we have a future that is _I couldn´t help thinking.

I had been turned to a vampire when I was in labor and as soon as Renesmee had been out of danger. I nearly lost my life that day but the thoughts of my daughter and family had kept me in the land of the living. The first three months after my transformation I had been in euphoria. I was so extremely happy; I had a wonderful daughter and the man I loved more than anything by my side. That's when Alice announced the death blow to mine and my family's happiness. The Volturi were coming to "investigate" the case of Renesmee. That was a lie. Aro had finally seen his chance to do something about our family since we had started to become a growing threat to him. A small growl escaped my lips without my permission but I didn´t care. I knew how power-hungry Aro was, but also how afraid he were that someone would overthrow him and take away his power. I knew that the Cullen´s were hopeful for a peaceful solution, but I knew that the chances for that were extremely small. I had chosen to not say anything to my family though, I didn´t want to be the one to end all hope.

What also lay heavy around my heart were the knowledge of that so many outside our family could be killed from this dangerous visit. Shortly after Alice had her vision everyone in our family, expect me and Edward, had travelled the world to visit old friends of Carlisle and ask for help. This had caused arrivals of new vampires on daily basis. I now considered the Denalis as family, I had made friends and I was comfortable with most of the other vampires as well. That they could get hurt…

Pain shot through my chest as fire and I suddenly got hard to breath. The pain didn´t stop instead it started to increase and spread through my body, fast. My eyes started to sting with tears that never would fall and I fell to my knees sobbing. That I could lose my family, my daughter…

I could only focus on the fire burning through my body until I felt strong two arms lift me up. Edward. The pain slowly started to disappear. I continued to sob as Edward placed me in his lap stroking my hair and speaking with a clam voice that it would be alright. When the pain was gone I looked up in his worried eyes and kissed his jaw.

"Thank you" I said as I wrapped my arms around him, holding him close. He didn´t say anything but I knew he was worried. I should have been to if the rolls had been replaced. We sat on the ground just holding each other for about an hour before I placed my hand on Edward´s cheek turning his face towards my own. It didn´t even take a second before his lips were on my own.

Our lips moved together while our hands roamed over each other bodies. I quickly removed Edward´s shirt while he thrust his tongue into my mouth making me moan loudly. I felt how this caused a huge reaction in his body and while our tongues were battling he removed my shirt and my pants. He removed his lips from my own only to move on to my neck waking me moan again. I felt him lift me of the ground, carrying me inside and place me on our bed with him on top of me. I had just begun working on his pants when we heard the front door burst open and a booming voice through the house.

"EDWARD! Carlisle needs you back in the house; he wanted to talk with you about something. He refused to tell me anything but it must be important. Hey! Perhaps it´s about Renesm… HOLY SHIT!!!" Emmett had appeared in the doorway staring, at us. His eyes where wide and his mouth looked like it had hit the floor if it could; I knew I would have been red as a tomato if I were human. The worst thing was that Emmett didn´t move he just stood there starring at us. I saw his mouth moving as if he was trying to say something but no words came out. Suddenly a high growl ripped through the silence and it took me a while realizing it came from… ME!

"If you don´t turn around Emmett I swear I will rip your head off AND tell Rosalie about this!!" I growled.

Emmett looked shocked half a second before he turned around covering his eyes with both his hands. Edward looked at me, his eyes coal black with lust.

"I like this side of you" he purred in my ear making me shiver.

"Please guys not while I´m here; if you stop I promise I will never make fun of your love life again." Emmett said sounding slightly panicked.

Edward and I just threw one look at each other before he kissed me quickly on the lips and disappeared into our closet while I wrapped the bed sheets around me.

"What did Carlisle want to talk about?" I asked Emmett.

"I don´t know" he said turning around slowly, afraid that I should be naked our something.

"You really should know better than just walking into our house in the middle of the night Emmett" Edward said with a smile on his lips as he came out from the closet fully clothed.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know I just didn´t think that… Anyway, who got you that stone you have around your neck Bella? I have never seen it before."

I quickly looked down on my chest and there hang the necklace I had gotten all those months ago. As fast I could I picked the stone up and dropped it under the sheet, hiding it from their glances.

"I have never seen that necklace before either Bella. Where did you get it?" Edward asked looking suspicious.

"I got it a long time ago, it´s nothing." I said with a fake smile. Both Edward and Emmett looked at me like they were trying to see through my lie.

"I thought Carlisle said his news where urgent" My voice had an edge to it that made both of them react.

"Sure, let´s go" Emmett said and I could hear him disappear towards the mansion. Edward on the other hand walked up to me and put one hand on my cheek. I leaned into his touch and looked up into his, once again, worried eyes.

"You promise to tell me if there´s anything that's bothering you" His eyes were searching an honest answer in mine when I whispered; "Promise". Looking happy with the sincerity in my answer he gave me a quick kiss and started running towards the mansion.

Thoughtful I cheeked on Renesmee. How she had been able to sleep through everything that had happened the last five minutes were a mystery for me. In my hand rested the stone that hang in the silver chain around my neck. Why had it appeared now? Of course I always wore it, but the necklace had the power to sink into my body and only appear then I needed to contact it´s true owner.

Realization hit me like lightning. There was a way to make our chances for victory increase drastically, to lead the attention away from Renesmee, chock Aro, Marcus and Caius and make sure no one else got hurt. My plan would without a doubt lead to war on that field, but I was sure we could win if I called for_ her_. In that moment I made two decisions; it was time for the Cullen´s to find out parts of my true past and I would finally reunite with _her_ no matter what they said.

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**Please Review**

**/Lysistrate**


	3. Myth, Rumor or Truth?

**I do not own Twilight. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer.**

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**Edward´s POV**

As I ran towards the mansion it was only my body moving, my mind was still in the cottage with Bella and Renesmee. No matter what Bella thought I had put two and two together. The necklace she had been wearing must be what laid in the package which had arrived before our wedding.

I remembered her strange reaction back then. She had wanted to be alone and when we didn´t want to leave her, she had screamed at me with panic and anger in her voice. All of us had been shocked by her reaction; Bella was always calm and gentle. It took a lot to make her angry and she had never screamed or snapped at any of us so fast. Damn, she might have screamed, but she had never snapped at us before. Her reaction when Alice mentioned her vision had also been strange for Bella. Her face had lost the little color that was left and her heart had almost stopped beating. But her eyes had been the worst. They had turned completely blank and almost black with fear and pain. That had troubled me ever since. Why pain? What pained her to remember? Or was it something else that pained her, and in that case, what!!?

My thoughts traveled back to her reaction just a moment ago. She had seemed surprised to see the necklace around her neck, which should be impossible because of our extremely good memory. She would, without a doubt, have remembered if she had put it on earlier. It was pretty obvious that she didn´t want any of us to see the stone that hang from the silver chain, since she quickly had hidden it under the bed sheet. But both Emmett and I had seen it. That stone. It was something strange about it. The blood red cracks had looked alive when it moved and when it was out of sight it had felt like a presence had left the room as well. How could a stone have a presence? It just didn´t make sense.

My speculations took an abrupt ending when I ran into Emmett. A sound like two boulders colliding echoed around us and most of the vampires visiting turned to look at us with amusement. Some were laughing and some just looked shocked. I knew this was one of the few moments that I would have blushed if I could.

"It´s alright everyone, Eddie here is just still with his"… Emmett began but I cut him off.

"Remember what you said a few moments ago Emmett?" I asked, my voice dripping with venom. Immediately every single one of the vampires who had been watching us quickly turned away and continued with what they had done before we came. Only Emmett had still had a silly smile on his face until he remembered his promise back in the cottage. It was very funny to watch how his whole face fell and was replaced by horror.

"_No! No more teasing Eddie boy and Bella!! NOOO!! What was I thinking? What am I now going to do with all the jokes I had figured out? Who am I going to annoy to death? No, no, no! Wait! I still have Nessie and the dog when they grow up! That is going to be so fun. Now I have to…"_

Emmett´s thoughts continued in the same direction so I just walked past him and up to Carlisle´s office. When I opened the door I wasn't surprised to see Stefan and Vladimir. I had heard their thoughts before I entered.

"_Sit down Edward_" Carlisle thought and I sat down in the only chair available.

"Why am I here?" I asked but I didn´t sound angry or sour. I heard in Carlisle's thoughts that he waited for the two ancient vampires next to me to begin, so I turned towards them instead.

"Well, Vladimir and I wanted to tell Carlisle about an old myth and he wanted you to hear it too. It´s has a connection to Aro." Stefan began.

"Yes, you see when we still sat on our thrones and ruled our world; Aro still was an "ordinary" vampire no one really knew about. The only thing we knew was that he had a pretty large group of followers around him." Vladimir continued.

"As you know Aro defeated us 1500 years ago. Vladimir and I were the only ones who managed to escape. But even though we were weak, we wanted our revenge on this strange vampire who had taken over our thrones. That was when we heard the "myth"."

"The myth?" I asked confused.

"Well it isn´t really a myth. Back then it was more like rumors without any scientific ground, it´s only Stefan and I who calls them for a myth to protect ourselves." Vladimir answered my question.

"The "myth", or rumors, was old already when we heard about them 1500 years ago." Stefan continued. "They say that there only is one group of vampires that Aro fears, and I mean really fears, like running away screaming when you hear their names fear. The rumors said that the leader of this group was Aro´s creator and that this vampire knew him inside and out. The leader also had some kind of hate against him because the only reason he changed Aro was for him to suffer for eternity. Unfortunately Aro adapted and became stronger."

"How big was this group?" I asked.

"Three vampires" Vladimir answered calmly.

"Three vampires!? How can three vampires threaten the whole Volturi?" I asked, confused. It sounded so… surreal.

"That's a question we have been trying to answer the last couple of years. We have traveled the whole world looking for these three vampires but we have never found them. Apparently Aro caught them of guard 2500 years ago, before the Volturi existed, and since that attack they have been in hiding. Aro have never stopped searching for them but he tells himself that they must be dead by now." Stefan answered.

"Why did they go into hiding?" Carlisle asked.

"No one knows, but Aro must have hurt them somehow. What we must remember is that there isn´t really any proof that they do exist and if they do; where have they been the past 2500 years? We searched for them nearly 1000 years before we gave up." Vladimir said his thoughts dark as he replayed all the years they had spent searching for the strange group of vampires.

"So why are you telling us this now? We don´t have time to go looking for them now. The Volturi is a little more than a week away!" I said furious.

"_Calm down Edward!" _I heard Carlisle's thoughts._ "If they have searched for these vampires nearly 1000 years without finding them, how would you then be able to find them in a few weeks? I know you want to protect your family but you have to keep a clear head. You must also be careful and not insult Stefan or Vladimir. Otherwise they won´t say a thing about this ever again. They must have had a good reason for not telling us sooner."_ Stefan just looked at me a few seconds before he answered my question like nothing had happened.

"We didn´t tell you before because _if_ this group of vampires exists they are impossible to find, unless they want you to. But we think…"

"That they hate Aro so much that they won't miss this golden opportunity to do something about him, just like us."

"Therefore you must keep an extra eye, or thought, open in case they arrive so we don´t attack them by accident."

It was strange when the Rumanians ended each other's sentences but I had to admit that they had thought this through. If these vampires had been "lost" for nearly 3000 years it was stupid to go trying to find them. There wasn´t even any proof that they had existed. But something told me that this story was true. I also had to agree that it was better to here wait and see if they showed up, which I doubted. If they had been hiding for this long, why would they come out now? I just had one more question left but Carlisle beat me to it.

"How come we have never heard about this before?"

"That´s Aro's biggest sin, he tracked down everyone who knew about the rumors and killed them, power or not. After that he forbade anyone to ever speak about this again and if they did there would be only one punishment, death." Vladimir answered with a sad expression.

With that they both rose from their chairs and slowly left the room. Both Carlisle and I were frozen in our chairs while we both thought the same thing. Stefan and Vladimir had just sacrificed their life's to give us a better chance of winning and we had underestimated Aro, big time.

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**Authors Note, important:**

The reason why I decided to write this chapter was because I wanted to give you, as a reader, a better insight in Edward's thoughts, but also because I couldn´t get this new part of the story out of my head. When I decided to start writing this story, this chapter didn´t exist. I debated a long time with myself if I should write this chapter or not. In the end I decided to give it a try. Now I´m very curious to know if I did the right choice to write and post this chapter, so please review and tell me what you think.

Also next chapter will be named **Parts from Bella´s past.**

/ Lysistrate


	4. Parts from Bella s past

Here is Chapter 4, I hope you will enjoy it.

There will be a link on my profile which shows the jacket Bella wears in this chapter.

**I do not own Twilight. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer.**

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**Edward´s POV**

I don´t how long Carlisle and I just sat in his office trying to make any sense of what we had just heard. For the first time I didn´t think there could be a peaceful solution to our problems. If what Stefan and Vladimir just had told us were true, then Aro had already proved that he wouldn't stop at anything to receive his goal.

"Do you think they really exist? The three vampires I mean?" I asked Carlisle.

"_I don´t know son. I have never heard of them before, but that wouldn´t be so strange if the Rumanians story is true, which, unfortunately I think it is." _Carlisle answered silently.

"But don't Aro´s actions show that they really do exist? Why would he kill hundreds, maybe thousands, of vampires for rumors which wasn´t true?"

"_If it was something I learned during my stay in Volterra it´s that Aro wants to look almighty to the world. That´s why he always sends out his worriers when all hope seams lost. That increases his authority in the vampire world and he seems undefeatable. Think yourself into Aro´s shoes Edward. If you wanted others to think of you like an almighty God, how would then a rumor saying that there were people out there who could destroy you, affect that picture?"_

The answer came to me right away, it really was crystal clear and I was almost embarrassed that I hadn´t thought of it before. I had been too worried about Bella and Renesmee.

"They would know that I had a weakness, they would know, that even though I had a lot of power, I could be overthrown and that would give them the courage to question my authority and my power over them."

"_Exactly the conclusions I have made myself! So to make sure these rumors didn´t spread I believe there is a huge chance that Aro actually did order to kill every vampire who knew about the rumors all those years ago. But there is still a problem! This theory doesn't tell us if the three vampires really do exist or if they are just characters in a story someone told others to give them hope."_

When Carlisle had finished, silence once again filled the room, while both Carlisle and I were trying to find a solution to our problems.

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**Bella´s POV**

After I had made my decision to tell my family parts from my past it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I had carried this secret for so long now that I had almost forgotten how much it had affected me. I guess I had gotten used to it, just like a soldier gets used to the weight of his armor and doesn't feel the difference until he takes it off after battle.

On feats that nearly touched the floor I left my daughters room and made my way towards the closet. It had taken me some time to figure out how Alice had built it up, but now I knew it inside and out. All the cloths that I wanted to avoid, and Alice liked, were in the front of the closet. While my favorite part, Alice´s vision of hell, was in the end of the closet. Dropping the sheet on the floor I went into "hell" and started to look for what I should wear. I really had tried to be more interested in what I was wearing since I became a vampire, but just like every morning (or night) I just took the first thing I saw.

I picked up a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt and put them on, making sure that the necklace hang on the outside of my shirt today, so it was visible. With a small sigh I picked up the sheet from the floor and made the bed at vampire speed. When I was done I looked at myself in the mirror and frowned a little before I returned to the closet and grabbed a black soft-shell jacket which I put on over the white t-shirt as well. I knew that I wouldn´t be affected by the temperature outside, since it no longer bothered me, but my daughter would and I had to be a good example for her. I would never be a Rosalie but my reflection didn´t look awful in my point of view.

After that I sat down at the floor taking the stone into my hands. With a deep breath I felt how the unbreakable walls around my mind disappeared. Before I dove with my mind into the stone, I could feel it pulse with life. The familiar feeling of being weightless came over me as I felt how my mind floated towards _hers_ in its hunt for the usual connection. It took around half a minute before I could feel the flow from _her _thoughts and I screamed as high I could with my mental lung: "_Maria!!!"_

"_Bella!! It was about time you contacted me!!" _Maria answered me and huge amount of happiness and love coming from her voice.

"_I know, but I only wanted to call for you if it was an emergency."_

"_Let me guess, the Volturi is coming with their devil of a leader to destroy your family because the asshole sees you as a threat to him."_

"_How did you… You have been in Italy haven´t you?!!" _I said angry.

"_No, but you couldn´t possibly think I wouldn´t keep an eye on you, could you? Just because you're a vampire doesn´t mean you´re immune to that bad luck of yours. Besides when you and your Edward went to a honeymoon and you were still human I figured out something like this could happen."_ Maria answered with causal tone.

"_You knew I could become pregnant?" _I was really confused by this. Last time we meet she had not known anything about that a human could become pregnant with a vampires child.

"_I have not spent my life under a stone since you left Isabella." _Maria answered laughing and I couldn't help laughing aswell.

"_So will you come helping us? We really need your help you know." _I said.

"_You do know that if I come Aro will declare war at once, don´t you?" _Maria said with a sad tone in her voice.

"_He´ll do that anyway and we can´t win without your help. You know that! You also know how many lives that could be saved if you came!"_ I was starting to become angry, but I knew Maria would come. She had to.

"_I will fight for you Bell, I promise that. Right now I´m in the north of Canada but I should be able to reach Forks in a two or three hours maximum. Where should we meet?_

I sent her a picture of mine and Edward´s meadow.

"_I will bring my family, they deserve to know."_ I said to her, my voice telling her that nothing she said could change that.

"_There will be a lot of explaining form us then. Very well. Take care Isabella and we will see each other soon again. Goodbye"_ With that I let my shield fall back in place and the connection disappeared. I hadn´t thought that Mia would be this close to us and come so fast, but she had always kept an eye on me so I wasn´t really surprised. The only problem with this was that now I would have to drop the whole bomb at once. _Nicely done Bella, _I thought sarcastically to myself. With one look at my cell phone I saw that Edward had been gone for a couple of hours. What took him so long? If not Stefan and Vladimir… No that was impossible.

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Carefully I made my way into Renemee's bedroom there she still was asleep. Smiling I woke her up and her brown eyes opened slowly.

"God morning mom" She said in her beautiful voice.

"God morning honey, it´s time to wake up" I answered still smiling. I saw Renemee´s eyes traveled down to the stone which now was visible and how her eyes winded.

"Wow, did daddy give you that heart mommy?" She asked, looking at me with eyes that were shining with curiosity. For me it felt like the ground just had disappeared under my feet and that the world had stopped spinning. How had she figured that out? No one had done that before! Then a memory came back me, a man speaking to my father telling him that children had a more opened mind than grownups because we think we know it all. We have lost our imagination and that Renesmee were incredibly smart didn´t precisely make anything harder for her. My face hadn´t showed any of my thoughts.

"No, I got this necklace many years ago from a really close friend. Now go and change, I'm going to show you a secret place that only your father and I know about today." I said. Renesmee jumped out of bed and danced out of her room to get dressed. I knew she could dress herself, not for that she wanted any help. I loved Renesmee with everything I had and it felt good to finally have found way to make her safe. I heard her small feet running back to me and when she was in front of me she jumped up in my arms. Then she placed her small hand on my cheek and told me that she was ready. Holding onto my daughter I left the house and started walking towards the meadow. I had only taken a few steps when Renesmee took the stone in her small hand and got a thoughtful expression over her face.

"Mommy how can the stone heart be warm when you are cold?" She asked confused.

Her question made me laugh; my daughter sure was something very special. When I reached the meadow an hour and a half later, thanks to Renemee's curiosity on everything that moved and my thirst, I called Edward.

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**Edward´s POV**

Both Carlisle and I jumped high in the air when my phone started ringing. First I was too confused to do anything, but pulled myself together and picked the phone out of my pocket. The caller-id said Bella and as fast as I could I answered the phone.

"Honey, are you alright? Has something happened to Nessie?" I asked slightly panicked.

"Edward calm done" She giggled in my ear. "But you must stop call our daughter that stupid nickname Jake gave her. Why the sudden panic?"

"Nothing love, I´m just worried about you." I said with a calm voice. Well I was calmer now that I knew they were okay; this new side of Aro had sent my nerves on highway.

"I called to ask you if you could come to our meadow and take the rest of the family with you." Bella sounded quite nervous.

"Why, is something wrong?"

"No nothing is _wrong_, but I have something have something I have to tell you guys. It has to do with my past." Now I really started to worry.

"We will come this instant, I heard that Esme and Rose just came back from their hunting trip, we just have to find Jacob and then we´re of."

"Good, and hurry I want you all to be here before my quest arrive."

"Quest? Bella what are you talking about? Bella? Bella!!?" She had hung up on me! I threw one look at Carlisle but he was already out through the door. As fast I could I ran after him, forget about worrying, I was staring to freak out.

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Around twenty minutes later we had almost reached the meadow. If not Jacob had imprinted on Renesmee I probably would have killed him by now. It had taken us fifteen minutes and two seconds to find him! Over fifteen minutes!! When we were only a few steps from the meadow we heard Bella saying something to Nessie which made me and Carlisle to freeze mid air, something we had done a lot lately, while we focused on Bella´s voice. The others stopped around us but we barely noticed them.

"… so the two remaining vampires went into hiding to mourn over their lost brother. As time went by they slowly started to come back to life but they never became the same after that event. They never sang again, never danced and were afraid of love. They kept for themselves and still hides from their brother's killer."

"Why did they run away mom, why didn´t they fight?"

"Because they were afraid of losing each other and being left alone, even though both of them had loved their lost brother, nothing was stronger than the love they felt for their own flesh and blood." Bella answered with a sad voice.

"But still. Did they ever love someone again mommy? Renesmee asked.

"Yes, one of them did fall in love, but the other never loved again." Bella answered with a voice which could belong to a person who had experienced thousands of years of pain, but also a person who could have experienced endless happiness. After that none of them said anything for a long time so we slowly made our way into the meadow.

Bella was sitting on the ground, with her back against us and with Nessie in her lap. Our daughter was playing with something I couldn´t see. In one graceful movement Bella rose from the ground, turned around so she was facing us and placed Renesmee on her right hip holding her there. That was then I saw that Renesmee was playing with that weird stone I had seen before. Once again it felt like the stone had a presence, like someone was watching us through it.

But what made me react was Bella. When I had left her in the cottage this morning her eyes had still been red, now they had the colour of gold. They where deeper than they had ever been when she was human, now they there like endless depths. They shone with the knowledge, experience and power of an ancient vampire, not a newborn. I could hear that everyone reacted to Bella's eyes, startled. For the first time in my existence, I felt young. Bella also stood straighter then she had done before and that she once had walked unnoticed in this world now seemed like a bad joke. She had such presence that no sound came from the forest, like it was holding its breath and there was not a single animal anywhere near the meadow. For the first time since I had meet Bella she looked dangerous and deadly. Power was radiating from her every core. Still the warmth and kindness I fell in love with was there. Somehow, when she looked at us, her face softened and she was my Bella again, yet not the quite same. Now she was like the goddess. Caring, selfless and deadly.

"_I don´t think even the Volturi leaders together could radiate such power. How is this possible? Bella is a newborn, so how come I feel like a young schoolboy again when I look her in the eye? And how could she knows about the three vampires? Nothing makes sense." _Carlisle was confused, Emmett in awe and Esme was worried. The wolves also looked at Bella in a new way. They whined and their thoughts told me how unpleasant they found the situation. The only one who didn´t look affected was Rose.

"Why did you want us to come here Bella?" Rose asked. Damn, we forgot to tell them in our hurry to get here. Bella´s eyes turned towards Rosalie before she answered.

"I wanted you to come here because I have to tell you that I have been lying to you about my past and also that I have invited an old friend of mine to join us. Her presence here will make war unavoidable, but with her assistants, we also will win." Bella said calmly.

"YOU WHAT!!?" Rose screamed. "And what do you mean with lying about your past!!?"

"You are not the first vampires I have met. When I was younger a vampire named Maria took care of me. I have also lived as a human twice in my existence. But everything will be explained when Maria arrives." Bella answered still calm.

"YOU´RE CRAZY YOU KNOW THAT!! NO ONE CAN BE HUMAN TWICE!! YOU ALSO WHERE A TERRIBLE LAIR WHEN YOU WERE HUMAN, YOU COULDN´T EVEN LIE ABOUT THE WEATHER!! AND HOW DARE YOU PUT ALL OF OUR LIVES IN DANGER!!! Rose screamed as she walked towards Bella. Bella still just looked like nothing had happened. Instead of answering Rosalie she just gave Nessie to her before her golden eyes met mine.

"No matter what have happened in my past you were, and still are, the only man I have ever loved. You are my soulmate and I take this risk in an attempt to save you, our daughter and our family." Her voice and eyes was so filled with love and sadness that I nearly cried. Esme sobbed into Carlisle´s shoulder and he looked broken as well. Even Emmett was serious.

"That doesn´t explain your decision, tell us the truth Bella!" Rose said with a demanding voice.

"Oh, she will tell all of you the truth and I will help her tell it." A voice which reminded of Bella's came from the trees across the meadow. There stood a vampire. She had black hair which went just behind her shoulders and a slender body. Her eyes had the same golden color as Bellas and the resemblance between them was scary. Still this vampire had a more fierce expression in her face and she looked more like a warrior than Bella did.

"Hello Bella, long time no see." She said with a smile that lightened up her whole face.

With a squeal Bella ran the fastest she could towards the unknown vampire and they hugged each other tightly, both laughing and squealing. When they broke free both of them had huge smiles on their faces.

"Who are you?" Nessie asked looking with huge eyes at the new vampire.

"My name is Maria, creator of Aro and Bella´s biological sister. Together we´re two of the three vampires he fears."

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**So I hope you liked it. Please Review!**

**/Lysistrate**


	5. A story about Love and Loss

**I´m sorry this chapter took so long, but I´m back in school and it takes a lot of my time right now. Also my computer has crashed so I have written this chapter on my computer in school. Therefore their will be more misspellings in this chapter since I havn´t used the same program that I use otherwise. Anyway I hope you will enjoy this chapter. It is a little longer than the others ;)**

**Disclamer: I do not own Twilight. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer.**

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**Bella****´s POV**

All of the Cullens and the wolves were staring at me and my sister, but I had started to worry. They had been staring at us for a couple of minutes now and that was a long time for a vampire and a shape shifter. The only one, who wasn´t bothered, was Renesmee. Her reaction had been asking Mia if she now could call her auntie before she had freed herself from Rose´s arms and jumped up in my sisters instead. Right now she had her hand on Mia´s cheek showing her everything she had missed. When this had happened it had caused a small reaction from my family, they had followed her with their eyes, before they continued their staring. Mia had told me they were trying to fit the pieces together and I knew she spoke the truth, but still...

"Mia I´m worried about them, they´re still in shock" I said hearing that my voice, indeed, were thick with worry. Maria turned her head towards me, eying me carefully. I saw the decision taking form in her eyes, but before I could stop her she had placed my daughter in my arms, taken two long steps towards Edward and slapped him over his cheek, hard. The sound when her stone hand collided with his stone hard cheek seemed to awoken everyone. Emmett was rolling in the ground with laughter and Esme looked a little worried while the rest of my family was trying to hold back there laughter. Edward on the other hand was glaring daggers on my sister who, like always, looked casual.

"I said I was worried about them, not that you should hit my husband!" I growled at her.

"Scientists have proven that hitting someone takes them out of shock, and you know it little sister. Besides I remember you slapping me in the face when I saw Nathaniel without a shirt for the first time." Mia answered with the voice of a school teacher. That was enough to make both of us cracking up with laughter. She was right and I still remembered her face; the wide eyes and the mouth that nearly hit the ground. Not that I had been an better when I Edward without a shirt, but still.

"Whose Nathaniel?" my daughter asked in my arms bringing us back to reality as I felt the stone I wore becoming warmer. I threw one quick look at Maria and saw that her happy face had been replaced with one of deep sorrow.

"Yes Bella, I think it´s time for you and your... uhm sister to tells us your story. There are a lot of questions which needs to be answered and as your family I think we deserve to know." Carlisle´s voice was gentle and calm, not blaming or angry as I had thought. I felt how my chest swelled with love for my family. They still cared for me even though I had lied to them all these years.

"I can´t tell you everything myself since that would only give you my perspective and thoughts. There were also periods that Mia and I have been separated and there are still some information which needs to be hidden." I saw Rose open her mouth with an angry look but I interrupted her. "It´s not because we don´t trust you, it´s because there is some information which must be hidden from Aro." That shut her up. With one nod from Mia I began our story.

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**Edward´s POV**

All of us had stared at Bella and her sister trying to make any sense of what they had told us. The only one who wasn´t bothered was Nessie, who had accepted this Maria like family at once. I was so deep in thought I didn´t realize Maria had moved before I felt her hand colliding with one of my cheeks. The action was so unexpected that I nearly attacked her on instinct, but I managed to hold myself back and only glare at her. I could see Emmet rolling on the ground with laughter, screaming in his brain that I had been bitch-slapped. The others around me were more controlled, but still thought it was very funny. Esme was the only one worried.

"_Poor Edward. I don´t like this at all, this girl is so different and it feels like something is missing her. I can´t figure out what it is though, and how will we survive if Bella spoke the truth about the Volturi attacking us." _Bella´s voice brought me out of Esme´s thoughts.

"I said I was worried about them, not that you should hit my husband!" She growled at Maria, her eyes radiating irritation and anger. If we had thought Bella looked dangerous before it was nothing against now and she was only irritated. I wondered how she would look like when she was angry. The thought made cringe mentally.

"Scientists have proven that hitting someone takes them out of shock, and you know it little sister. Besides I remember you slapping me in the face when I saw Nathaniel without a shirt for the first time." Maria answered with the voice of a school teacher. That caused both of them to start laughing. Their voices together were the most beautiful symphony the universe had ever created and their laughs made all of us lightheaded. But when Nessie asked who Nathaniel was both of them stopped laughing. Bella got a worried look in her face while Maria got a look of deep sorrow. When Maria´s face changed so did the stone that hang around Bella´s neck. The red cracks grew and started moving, looking like flames in a fire.

"Yes Bella, I think it´s time for you and your... uhm sister to tells us your story. There are a lot of questions which needs to be answered and as your family I think we deserve to know." Carlisle´s voice was gentle and calm. Relief, mixed with the worry in Bella´s face and made me wish, not for the first time, that I could read her mind.

"I can´t tell you everything myself since that would only give you my perspective and thoughts. There were also periods that Mia and I have been separated and there are still some information which needs to be hidden." Bella said. Rose opened her mouth to once again scream at Bella, but my love interrupted her before she even began. "It´s not because we don´t trust you, it´s because there is some information which must be hidden from Aro." That shut my sister up. She couldn´t disagree with Bella´s thinking since she knew, just like all of us, about Aro´s power. With one nod from Maria, Bella began telling hers and her sisters' story.

"I was born in Italy 3052 years ago in Italy." Bella started with a sad voice. "During my birth there became complications and my mother died. I had to be left to a nurse who could take care of me until I was old enough to survive without breast-feeding. Maria was five years old when I was born and she had to take care of the funeral since she was the only woman left in our family. Our father was a wreck and more like a living dead than a human." Here Bella stooped speaking and turned her gaze to Maria who took a deep breath before she continued the story.

"When Bella was strong enough to survive without the nurse, our father demanded that she would come home imidetly. When my sister was home he gave her one look before he gave her to me and told me to take care of her. I did my best. I loved my sister above all and she remaindered me a lot about our mother. It was I who named her and I gave her same name our mother had. Isabella. Marie actually came from my own name, since I was named after our grandmother. I also wanted to give my sister something to remember me with since I didn´t know if I could raise her."

"What is your name dear?" Esme asked when Maria did a small pause.

"My name is Maria Isobelle. I know it´s nearly the same as my sister, but Isobelle is really the name of our father's mother." She answered with a smile.

"Anyway, somehow I managed to take care of Bella when she grew from baby to child. Of course this caused my own childhood to be very short and I grew up fast. When I was ten years old and Bella was five years old, hell broke loose. Until now our father hadn't even looked at us, but suddenly he saw the young beauty my sister was. Only five years old Bella already looked like a copy of our mother. Her colors were the same and many of her features.

That caused our father to go into madness. He thought that Bella was a reincarnation of our mother and would have treated her as a grown up if I hadn´t steeped in." Maria closed her eyes, pain radiating from her. Esme had tears in her eyes that would never fall along with Rosalie. Rose´s thoughts contained deep compassion towards the ancient vampire in front of us. It wasn´t hard to understand what she meant with "treating her as a grown up". That Maria had allowed her own father to rape and abuse her in Bella´s place told us how much she loved her sister.

When Bella saw her sister pained face she put Renesmee on the ground, rushed forward and embraced Maria, hard. Carefully Nessie made her way towards me and I lift her up, holding her close. That anyone would do that to their daughter was unbelievable. My love whispered something to Maria that we couldn´t hear and all we could do was watching their silent conversation. Bella had tears in her eyes still speaking quietly to her sister and we all tried to understand the horror Maria must have felt during this time of her life. Suddenly Maria nodded and Bella let her go but still held onto one of her hands. Her sister still looked pained but somehow it had almost vanquished. "_She must see Bella´s happiness as a reward of her own suffering"_ I heard Carlisle thinking.

"Our father let Bella be," Maria continued her voice sounding casual, "but he did treat her differently. She was his "queen" I guess you could say and he tried to spoil her even though she often refused to accept his gifts. He never called her ungrateful when she said no to the things he gave her; instead he always tried to find something bigger and better. In the beginning things didn´t chance much, but as the time went by he started to get frustrated and that frustration affected me. When Bella found out she stopped refusing his gifts and things got a little better."

Now I understood Bella´s hate for presents, they had caused her sister more pain than necessary. I wasn´t the only one who felt quality thinking of all those time we had literally forced her to accept expansive gifts.

"The real bomb was dropped though when I was about to turn nineteen. Bella had turned fifteen just a few weeks before it happened. Our father came home with a man, Nathaniel." With that Maria stopped speaking her eyes distant as she lost herself in the past. Bella smiled and shook her head a little before continuing with the story.

"Nathaniel was the most beautiful man I had seen in my short life, but I didn´t feelt drawn to him. Mia did. In our period of time you usually got married in the age of fifteen so we both thought that our father had brought home Nathaniel to meet Maria. We were wrong. Nathaniel had requested to meet me, but I could see when he came through the door that he was drawn to my sister in the same way she was to him.

Somehow it felt like he held the key to our problem, so in an attempt to be alone with him I told my father that I thought the maids "needed help". He didn´t like it, but he left taking Mia with him. When we were alone Nathaniel and I talked. I told him about our situation and he told me about his. He told me he was a monster of the night, a vampire, and that he had known about our situation for a while now. Before he left we made a deal that would give him my sister and us our freedom." Bella turned her head towards her sister and when she saw that Maria still had a dreamy look on her face, she sighed before slapping Maria on the arm.

"Oww, take it easy, I will continue. _Jesus_." Maria said with a cutie angry look. "So on the night Bella had meet Nathaniel all I could think of was him, but I was interrupted in my daydreaming by a knock on my door. When I opened it, it was Bella standing outside gesturing that I should follow her. I followed her up to her room and there was Nathaniel. That I was shocked at first is an understatement." Bella snorted next to Maria and rolled her eyes. "Okay a huge understatement. I screamed at him for corrupting my sister before I screamed at Bella for her being a dumbass. Nathaniel actually had to cover my mouth with his hand to make me shut up. When I had calmed down he told me everything, him being a vampire and that he was ready to change us. He also told us about all the risks with a change since he wasn´t a vegetarian. Carlisle was actually the first of your kind ever." Maria said turning towards him briefly before continuing.

"Bella and I accepted his offer, ready to risk our lives to get away from our personal hell. I only had one request and that was that I would be bitten first incase Nathaniel couldn´t control himself. During our burning Nathaniel took us far away from town out in the wilderness. I remember waking up I in a cave, Bella looking at me worriedly. I remember reacting on how different she was and how hard I had controlling myself. Bella on the other hand was very controlled and she helped Nathaniel looking after me. Just a few weeks after my transformation, he and I started our relationship as mates." Maria said.

"Yeah I still have painful memories from that period of time, you two were absolutely hopeless and didn´t really think about the fifteen year old vampire who traveled with you." Bella cut in and shuddered at the thought. I thought of all the times I had herd Emmett's and Rose´s thoughts and truly suffered with my Bella. Emmett on the other hand laughed together with Jake, but Bella silenced them both with one glare. Maria looked amused at my love.

"You could have said something."

"I did, but you two were always too busy to notice." Bella said glaring at her sister who looked like she would have blushed if she could. _At least that goes within the family, _I thought to myself chuckling.

"Uhmm… Let´s continue instead. Let´s see… For ten years, I think, all three of us lived quite a calm life. Nate, that's Nathaniel, trained us in battle so that we could defend ourselves if we needed to and we trained hard to develop our gifts, I will tell you mine later. It was during one of our visits in our old home town that we met Aro. We had met him in our human lives and we hated him with our interne being, a hate that had only increased when we became vampires. Why, I'm not going to tell you. In an attempted to make him suffer for eternity, I changed him. That was my biggest mistake. Aro turned his newly found power around to attack us, already as a newborn. The three of us were strong though and for five hundred years we managed to defeat him and his "brothers" time after time. We became confident and that would be our doom." Maria silenced and was once again far away in visions that only she could see. _Wait, only she can see?!! __I can´t read her thoughts, how´s that possible?! She can't be a shield as well, can she?_ I felt really stupid for not noticing this before. I _really _needed to be look out for things like these more in the future.

"It was the 27th of September when it happened." Bella´s voice, full of sorrow, bought me out of my thoughts. "It had been exactly 500 years since I and Mia was changed into vampires. During that time Nathaniel had become my older brother and I loved him dearly. The bond between the three of us was something I never thought I would experience again. But I did, with you" Bella said looking at all of us with a sad smile on her face.

"We were in Germany and had celebrated all day I had decided to leave Nate and Mia alone for the night to go hunting. I came back in dawn and the sight that met me… it was the most horrible thing I have ever seen. Countless of vampires lay dead on the ground and more of them was surrounding my family. Mia and Nate were in the middle trying to avoid and kill the vampires around them. Aro, Caius and Marcus watched from a small distance. Marcus was the only one who looked sad. Caius and Aro on the other hand had sick smiles on their faces, they were enjoying the bloodbath." The stone that hang on Bella´s chest looked like it was filled with blood that swirled around almost too fast to see clearly, even for our eyes.

"Madness came over me." Bella´s voice was filled with hate and it felt like the temperature had dropped 50 degrades Celsius. "I ran the fastest I could and joined the battle. I don´t know how many lives I ended that day, but soon I was reunited with my brother and sister. All three of us turned towards the three "brothers" behind us and attacked them. I fought against Caius and my small size helped me a lot. It looked like we could win when Marcus got a hold of Mia´s arm and bit her. The sound distracted Nate long enough for Aro to…" Bella stooped, her eyes filled with tears. She placed one hand over her mouth and her whole body shock with sobs. The now red stone looked like it wasn´t going to be able to hold in the force inside of it. I couldn´t bare seeing Bella in so much pain without trying to make her feel better, so I quickly made my way towards her with our daughter. Both of us hugged her and she embraced us with strong arms telling us how much she loved us and that she would never let us go. Suddenly a strangled cry came from Maria and I threw a glance on her.

The pain showing in her face scarred me, she looked mad, her eyes burning and her whole face twisted in a mask of raw pain. Another scream escaped her mouth as she fell to the ground, clutching her sides, shaking. Words were escaping her mouth to fast for us to hear. Bella only watched her sister before turning her head towards Esme giving her a pleading look. My mother understood imidaltlly what my love wanted and rushed forward to embrace Maria. For the first time the ancient vampire looked lost and wounreble.

To my big surprise Bella began speaking again, her eyes locked at her sister. "The pain of losing your mate is unbearable and many vampires goes mad when it happens. We should have died all three that day if I not somehow still was sane enough to grab Mia and run off. She fought me with all she was worth at first, but eventually she gave up. I carried her to the North Pole before I stopped. The first week was the worst, neither of us ate and where more like zombies than vampires. Maria had lost her only love, and I had lost my brother. After that came the anger, Maria nearly broke free from my hold in an attempt to find Aro and kill him for his awful deed. For the first time our rolls had been replaced and I took care of Mia. In the end came the pain and that´s how I got this." Bella held up the still blood red stone in her hand showing it to all of us. It pulsed with life and power.

"What is that?" Carlisle asked while all of us eyed it carefully, everyone could feel it´s strange pressens.

"That is my heart, young one, and the source of my soul" Maria said looking at her heart with hate, while the rest of us stared at her with shock.

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**Kill me after you´ve reviewed ;) **

**Just kidding, but I really had to leave the story here beacuse ohterwise it hadn´t felt like I did the story justice. It needed a break here or otherwise it had been to much information for you as a reader. I also wanted to saperate Bella´s and Mia´s story from the information which comes in the next chapter. **

**/Lysistrate**


	6. The Strength of the Soul

**Hope you will enjoy this chapter. It might take some time before the next chapter is uploded beacuse I have a lot in school right now, but I will try to write when to have the time. **

**Disclamer: I do not own Twilight. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I do own the charachter Maria though ;)**

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**Edward´s POV**

While Maria was glaring at her heart in Bella´s hand and Bella looked at her sister with sorrow, the rest of us had our eyes dancing between the two of them. That was when I noticed that Nessie had her hand on Bella´s neck, silently asking her mother if she was allowed to hold her aunts heart. Bella gave our daughter a small smile before she carefully lifted the silver chain over her head and placed her sister's heart in Nessie´s now awaiting hand. Renesmee inspected the heart a little before turning towards Maria.

"How and why did you take out your heart auntie Mia, and why is it warm? Mommy didn´t answer that question before." Nessie said, her voice sounding firm at the end looking at Bella. That caused us all to laugh a little. Even Maria´s face lit up before her eyes got an amused shine.

"So Bella, you have been a bad mother not answering your daughter´s questions? Well then the nice auntie has to do it for you" Maria said to my love, her eyes still shining with humor. Next to me Bella just shook her head smiling, but she didn´t say anything. I once again wished I could read her thoughts. Maria gave Esme a small hug, thanking her, before she stand up and walked over to us picking up Nessie from the ground. She was careful not to touch her heart. She told Nessie with a soft voice that Bella had to have the necklace before she could continue the story. Frowning a little our daughter gave her mother the necklace back and my love immediately put it around her neck again.

"You see my darling nice; losing Nate was the worst thing that had ever happened to me." Maria began. "When the numb feeling that came over me was gone and the anger was gone as well, the only thing left was the pain. It consumed me; it burned worse than turning into a vampire. For each year we had spent together as mates, our love had grown to no end and now when my love was gone, my other half was gone as well. My heart and body burned with a fire with only one purpose, to destroy me and make me follow my dear Nate into death. But I fought it, knowing your mother needed me. I was thorn and in my agony I forgot my own strength and I clawed my way into my chest until I reached my stone heart. When I reached it I ripped it of my chest and threw it away from me.

When my heart disappeared, so did most of the fire. My body still burned, but the fire was weaker and I couldn´t feel the pain in my heart anymore, it was gone. I was still broken beyond repair and every second felt like eternity, but my mind was clear again. Losing my heart didn´t hurt me and I´m not "heartless", I can still feel. My body though still burns to this day and every day is a never ending pain. I have learned to live with my destiny though and nowadays I never think of the pain, it´s a part of me. " Maria ended looking at Nessie with calm eyes. Nessie just nodded before she started playing with her auntie's hair. Carlisle on the other hand, had countless of questions burning inside of him, but he didn´t want to seem rude asking them. To my surprise Maria seemed to know what he was thinking because she said "I can see a question biting you in the tongue, young one. What do you want to ask?"

_It will take a while getting used to be called young one. But of course, compared to Bella and Mia I am young, very young. _Carlisle thought before he asked one of his questions out loud.

"How come your heart and body could hurt so much after Nathaniel's death? Don´t get me wrong, I don´t know what I should have done without Esme, but how could rip your heart out help you?" Carlisle said and Maria´s eyes got a more firm look.

"As I _said_ before my heart was the source of my soul, but first I have to tell you about the huge difference…"

"We don´t have souls! We lose them when we are changed." I could hear the irritation and frustration in my own voice. I knew we couldn't have souls, we are monsters of the night, we gave up our soul for eternal life. _Bella always told you that you have a soul and she must know more about this subject than you do. Plus you still hope that you have a soul, you haven't given up. _I heard a voice say in my head, but I quickly silenced it. Maria watched me closely for a moment, and it felt like she knew about my inner battle, before she turned towards my father to continue where she was interrupted.

"As I was saying, there is a huge difference between humans and vampires. In a humans body the soul is bound to the heart. Mostly it can´t effect the body in a way that is noticeable, but sometimes it can. When humans talk about miracles, it's really the soul in that person that somehow broke free for a moment. But as I said before, mostly the soul is kept locked in a humans heart and can´t help the body in a noticeable way. Therefore humans can get sick or break their bones. The soul does, however, provide the body with small amounts of energy, and to "upload" this power humans sleep." Carlisle opened his mouth to ask a question, but Maria just smiled and beat him with the answer.

"Yes, the reason why the soul is locked in the heart is because it´s the only organ strong enough to hold such power. The reason why is because the heart is the biggest muscle in the human body, any other part of the body is too weak to contain even one small piece of a person's soul. But that the soul is locked in a humans heart is also its biggest weakness. As you know, a human can be brain-dead and still have a functional body, but she can´t survive without a heart. That's because when the heart stops, the soul no longer can spread its energy to the body, causing it to shut down.

Now the soul in a vampire is different. The burning we feel during our transformation is really our soul rushing through our body turning it into a form where the soul is linked to every single part of it. This changes us into becoming what we are now. Our strength, speed and hard skin come from the power of our souls. The reason why we don´t age or change is because the soul is eternal and unchangeable. Lastly our beauty comes from that we now are connected to the very essence of who we are." Here Maria stopped and looked expectantly at my father who looked like he was in deep thought, which he was. In the end he looked up at Maria with an interested look.

"This explains why the transformation first starts when our venom reaches the heart, somehow it must release the soul, but you said the soul is unchangeable, right?" Carlisle did a small pause and Maria nodded. "Then how can we fall in love after our transformations? Edward has changed a lot since he met your sister." Carlisle said and a huge smile spread across Maria´s face, but instead of answering herself, she turned to Bella who already looked at Carlisle with the same amused expression as her sister wore.

"What Mia said is true, our souls are unchangeable, but there is one exception. When a vampire finds the one person that has a soul which matches with his or her own, they become like magnets. The souls want to connect and to do that they must come in contact with each other. The shock of electricity we all have felt the first time we have touched our partner, is really our souls connecting, mixing and bonding with each other. After this bond has been made it´s nearly impossible to leave the person you have bonded with.

Your souls are now mixed together and for the first time you can experience true love and happiness. The more time you spend with your mate, the more your souls mix. Some of the oldest couples are so synced that you nearly can´t see a difference in their personality. This bond also makes it impossible to stay apart for too long. The pain is unbearable." Bella paused for a moment when her eyes met mine and it wasn´t hard to figure out she was referring to when I left her a little more than a year ago. I still beat myself up for that decision. At the same time it was a huge relief to understand why I had had such a strong pull towards Bella since the first day I saw her. Not that I cared, I couldn´t think of any other person I rather had bonded with than this wonderful woman in front of me.

"The pain of losing your mate is even worse though. Your soul is broken; a huge piece of it is gone forever. On top of that, you have to endure that pain with every particle of your body, _since your soul is connected to every particle in your body_. The heart hurts the most, since the biggest part of the soul still is kept there. When my sister ripped out her heart, a lot of the pain went with it, but the pieces of her soul that still exists in her body can still hurt her."

"Any more questions young one?" Maria asked.

"Many, but right now I´m curious on what happened to you and Bella after the three brothers attacked you." Carlisle said his voice a little wary.

"It didn´t happen too much. Both Bella and I went into hiding and if we did met anyone of our kind we killed them, making sure Aro couldn´t find any information about us. We travelled through villages and cities trying to mix our scents with the humans so we would be harder to find. We never stayed in the same place more than a few hours. It took all our skill to avoid the vampires Aro sent after us in the beginning, but as time went, we got more skilled and Aro more confident that we were dead. We were always careful not to kill the vampires he sent after us since that would have exposed us. We studied different languages and tried to learn everything of every new place we visited. But as time went by I started to worry about Bella again. She feared love and had her own special way to take care of the men that showed any affection towards me or her. She…"

"MARIA ISOBELLE SWAN TALVIO! DON´T YOU EVEN DARE TELLING THEM THAT!!!" We all jumped high in the air when my Bella screamed and we all got scared at the wild expression in her face. She had rose from the ground and taken Renesmee from her sisters' arms. How Maria could look completely calm was a mystery to me.

"I would never tell them that you killed all those men because you didn´t want me or you to get hurt without your permission dear sister." Maria said really fast, still with a calm look on her face, but her eyes shined with humor. Bella looked shocked for a second before her expression turned murderous. It wasn´t hard to understand that the only reason why Bella hadn´t killed Maria already was because of the love she felt for her sister. The rest of us looked at my love disbelieving, that Bella would kill anyone for nearly no reason seemed… well impossible. Bella was sweet, innocent and caring. It couldn´t…

"_Bella killing men because they were interested in her HA! That is ridiculous she would never… DEAR GOD!!! She hit me in face when I kissed her all those months ago!!! And she really wanted to hit me with that baseball bat. HOLY COW! SHE COULD HAVE KILLED ME IN MY SLEEP!"_

"Holy cow? Seriously dog, can´t you do better than that? And Bella would never have hurt you." I hissed at Jacob, but he only looked at me with doubt in his eyes.

"_You´re not even close as scary as Bella, Eddie"_ He thought to me making me growl before I turned to look at my wife. She was still glaring at Maria, who now had a teasing look in her face.

"You really managed not to kill a guy that hit on you Bella,_ who_ also is a werewolf? I am so proud you." She said and wiped off a fake tear from her eye. Bella´s face got a little softer and her lips twitched, but she didn´t laugh.

"Did you really kill guys for hitting on you Bells?" Emmett asked.

"Yes, sadly I did, but in defense I was afraid of getting hurt like my sister." Bella answered looking truly sorry. But her face changed into a smile when Emmett rushed forward and lifted her from the ground in a bear hug, telling her that he was very proud of her for killing those scum's who had tried to put their dirty hands on his baby sister. Bella giggled when Emmett sat her down on the ground again and Nessie laughed together with Maria. No one in the meadow judged my love, not even Leah. I also had to admit that knowing Bella only had accepted me felt really, _really _good. Finding out about Bella´s past also helped me to understand her better. That she had never had a boyfriend before me and why she always turned down Mike, Eric and Tyler suddenly made a lot more sense.

"You still haven't told us how Bella could be a human when she came to Forks though. She must have been changed somehow, right?" Rosalie asked with hope clear in her voice. Emmett´s happy face turned sad. He knew, just as well as everyone else, that Rose was ready to sacrifice everything for the chance to become human again.

"Yes, she actually was changed, by me." Maria said eyeing Rosalie carefully seeing the joy spreading in her face. "And before you ask, NO I will not change you because you haven´t thought over that decision, believe me I know." Rose had a broken look in her face and Emmet ran over and hugged her. Esme and Carlisle didn´t know if they should be happy or sad. They didn´t want to lose their daughter, but they wanted Rosalie to be happy. Maria on the other hand continued.

"It´s time for you to find out my power. I am an opposite at least that is the closest name I have come up with to describe my power since I´m the opposite of a vampire in general. I can turn my power on and off completely whenever I want to; unlike Jane´s power, which can work on its own depending on her emotions. I can also use only parts of my power, right now I´m "borrowing" your mindreading power Edward. I´m not copying it and if I´m two kilometers away from you, your power no longer works for me. I guess you that I ´m standing in the middle of a circle and the diameter of that circle is 2 kilometers wide, giving me access to every power inside of the circle. Before I ripped my heart out, I also could turn into something very similar to a human when I allowed all of my power to work, but since my heart started beating when I did that, I haven't dared to try it since that day. To make me completely opposite my venom also works in a different way when I want it to. I can turn a vampire into a human, but still not completely. You live longer and some vampire features stays with you after the change, one is that your soul still has a connection to your body.

I changed Bella a little more than a century ago, but the reasons for that change she has to tell you herself. That is not my story to tell." Maria ended. It was hard to believe what she said was true and if it was; her power would give us a huge advantage over the Volturi.

"That ´s right Edward, that´s the reason why Bella think that she and I alone can defeat the Volturi and I agree with her. Aro´s search for power have given us a huge advantage." Maria said, _reading my thoughts! _It felt so weirdhaving my power turned against me. I also had to agree with that Maria and Bella would… WAIT!

"What do Maria meaning saying you and her will fight the Volturi alone?!!!" I nearly screamed turning towards Bella. The fear hit me with full force and I nearly became numb.

"She means exactly what she said Edward, we´ll fight for all of you. This is our battle and I will not risk both you and my daughter!" Bella answered with a firm voice.

"I will not let you fight against the whole Volturi on your OWN! I will not ALLOW YOU!" I answered screaming at her. I never thought I would fight with Bella over this, she was too fragile. In front of me Bella´s eyes had gotten a dangerous glow and it felt like the world had frozen to ice, even her sister looked wary. Slowly Bella gave Nessie to Maria and started speaking with a low, venomous voice.

"Now you will listen to me Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, I may love you and I may know you only want to protect me, but I will only make this clear to you once. You do not, and I repeat, YOU DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO DO! Before you were even born I had killed countless of vampires and I am a much more experienced fighter than I was 2500 years ago. So for the first time since we met YOU WILL accept this and YOU WILL TRUST ME when I say we will win and that I will fight ALONE next to my sister. Now is that okay with you?" Bella finished. No one had ever thought Bella could be so scary or look so mad, but I tried to see through the angry mask. I looked deep into her eyes and what I saw there made me change my mind. I saw such deep love and worry I would have cried if I could. It all came clear to me; she was sacrificing herself to save our daughter, me, our family and the wolves. She had lived for thousands of years and I understood that she wanted us to have chance of living that long as well.

Moving vampire speed I ran forward and embraced her. She threw her arms around me and buried her face in my chest. "Promise me you come back?" I whispered in her ear and I could feel her nodding before taking a step back. What happened next chocked me to no end.

"_Come with me, there is something I have to tell you" _I heard Bella´s thoughts. I heard them. I stared at her in awe, but she had moved away, whispering something to her sister. Maria nodded before Bella took my hand and lead me deeper into the forest.

When we left I heard Maria say to someone "She is going to tell him about their true bond and past."

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**So there it is. I will upload a new story shortly as well. It will be named "I can still feel you" and it will be a Bella and Edward story with a new twist. I hope you will check it out!**

**Please REVIEW!!**

**/Lysistrate **


	7. I have always loved you

**Okay I am really sorry that this chapter took so long, but now it´s here. :) This chpater is longer than the others and for you who have waited for more Bella x Edward moments, this chapter is full of them since this chapter is all about Bella and Edward. I really hope you will like it.**

**Disclamer: I do not own Twilight. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I do own the character Maria Isobelle Swan though. **

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**Edward´s POV**

Bella´s hand was warm in my own as she led me deeper into the forest. When I no longer could hear the thoughts of our family, she started running. As I ran behind her, I realized that the puzzle that had been around Bella nearly was solved. Her new past explained why she always had seemed older than her age of seventeen and why she never had reacted on our cold skin, she had known we were vampires. That Charlie also wasn't her real father explained why she always said "_Charlie" _and not "_dad_" when he wasn´t nearby. It was the same with Renee. Still she had held such love for her "parents" and she had sacrificed herself for them many times. _She has always been selfless I guess. _I thought

Her past also explained the white skin tone she had as a human and why she could smell blood. It also explained why she had been so controlled since she had been turned into a vampire, she had already been one. Many more pieces now fit in what had been Bella´s unsolved puzzle. But even though Bella´s real past had answered many questions it had awoken just as many. Why did she want to be turned into a human? Did she hunt animals or did she hunt humans until she met us? I was hoping that she would take the first alternative in that question.

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**Bella´s POV****  
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It was as if a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders as I started to lead Edward deeper into the forest, away from our family and my sister. The things I was going to tell my love now was something that was meant for his ears only, at least for now.

The happiness I felt over that my family had seemed to accept Mia warmed me, but still I felt a little scared and uncertain. What if Edward wasn´t going to love me after what I told him? I knew that the things my sister and I had done to survive and blend in among humans sometimes could seem cruel to others around us. No I couldn´t think of that right now, everything would work out.

Neither Edward nor I said anything as we walked through the forest, but when we started to move up a hill I felt how Edward tensed for just a second. He recognized this place and I knew he would, this had been where we had had our final battle with Victoria. For some reason I liked this place, when you stood at the top of the mountain, you could see the whole forest.

As soon we had reached the top I let go of Edward´s hand and took a few more steps forward so I was standing at the edge of the mountain, feeling how the strong wind played with my long hair and my open jacket.

"Do you remember that Mia said that Carlisle was the first vegetarian ever?" I asked him without turning around.

"Yes…" My love answered his voice a little wary. I understood him; he had no idea where this was heading.

"She told the truth." I said looking at a pair of birds who played with each other in the strong wind. "Around 400 years ago, when Mia and I were hiding from the Volturi we heard rumors about a vampire with golden eyes. A vampire who had questioned our way of living and tried to free himself from the curse of drinking the blood of humans and succeeded to free himself from the need of human blood. Both Mia and I were shocked! Never before in our long existence had we heard anything about being able to survive on animal blood instead of human blood. Mia had never really cared very much about our diet, but I had always been hurt by all the lives I took. So I diced to try this new hunting technique and Mia diced to try it as well in an attempt to help me.

It was harder than we had ever imagined, for nearly 3 000 years we had lived on the blood of humans and we had gotten a really selective taste. It´s a little funny that you never thought that I understood your need for my blood when I probably understood the carving you had for my blood better than yourself." I shook my head a little and felt how small ironic smile spread on my lips. Without turning around I continued.

"It took us nearly 150 years to get enough control to even get close to human and we slipped many times. But our new diet had in some way changed how we thought and both of us now saw the crime we committed by taking a humans life. Maria many times said that it was the pain of knowing that a family lost one of their members that did helped her to resist human blood. I often thought the same and even if none of us said it, we both thought of the pain we had felt when Nate died. We couldn´t willingly put anyone through such pain."

I heard Edward doing an intake of breath behind me and I knew he was thinking at when he left me in the forest.

"It wasn´t your intention to cause me pain you know, I do _not _blame you." I told him and I heard how he moved forward and placed one hand on my shoulder. Still I couldn´t look at him.

"After around 300 years Mia and I could travel among humans again and it was during one of our travels that we heard that a new doctor had arrived to the city we were traveling through. His name was Carlisle Cullen and, according to the women, the most beautiful man they had ever seen, with golden eyes and blond hair. Mia and I immediately reacted when we heard golden eyes. We knew he had to be the vegetarian vampire we had heard of before.

We decided to visit him at the hospital where he worked, but when we asked one of the women we had heard the gossip from she told us not to visit him. Apparently he worked with patients who suffered from the Spanish influenza. We knew that we couldn´t get sick so we headed towards where Carlisle was working. After asking around we found out where to find him, but right before we walked into the building there he worked, a middle aged woman and her teenage son exited the building just as we were about to enter." I stooped when I felt how Edward's grip on my shoulder increased and how he draw a few deep breaths. I knew that if I had been human all the bones in my shoulder would have been crushed.

"Which city where you and your sister in and which year was it?" The voice of my love was strangled and pained. If he only knew how much pain it caused me that _I_ was the one who caused him this pain.

"We were in Chicago and the year was 1918." I answered with a low voice.

"Then you…" I felt how Edward let go of my shoulder and I heard how he backed away so I flew around, facing him for the first time. His face was pained and he looked at me disbelieving. His expression killed me slowly. "Is that what all of our relationship is about? Are you feeling pity for me because I was sick back then? That I remind you about your past? Or is this just some kind of trick so you and your sister can destroy all of the evidence of your existence again and disappear?"

It felt as if my whole inside was breaking and I felt how my eyes filled with tears that would never fall. This was what I had feared so much, losing the one I lived for. The only man I had ever loved and the only man who ever had won my heart. Edward must had thought my reaction was from feeling quilt, because he started to back away as I saw how a broken expression started to spread on his face. I knew I had to act now or my soul would be gone forever. Before Edward had the chance to take another step backwards I ran forward and placed my hand on his cheek.

"NO! That is not true! What I saw that day took my breath away! I saw the most beautiful man on earth exiting that building. His hair was bronze and his skin was lightly colored from the sun. But his eyes were the most amazing emerald green. They shone with life, but still looked worried and I wanted nothing more than to make him smile and take away his worried expression. I wanted to make him happy. For the first time in my life I thought about how I looked and if he would notice me. It felt like I had found a missing piece in my life and I wanted nothing more than to touch this beautiful stranger. But at the same time I was scared, I knew I had found my mate and love scared me. Because I knew deep down I already loved this man in front of me and he was you Edward! I didn´t know your name at the time, but I remember dragging Mia with me away from the hospital, explaining everything to her.

Never before had we gotten into such a huge fight. I wanted her to change me into a human; I was ready to sacrifice everything for a man I had just met. In the end Mia agreed to change me and she bit me the same day. The transformation felt as if cold water flooded through my body and when it started to withdraw I _felt_ cold. When I awoke the world was blurry and all of my senses had decreased. Maria was there when I woke up and she told me your name. Edward Anthony Mason. The most beautiful name in the world and all I could think of were you. But then Mia told me the horrible news.

During my transformation you had become sick and died. Mia told me that she hadn't found your body and that Dr. Cullen had left the town one day before I woke up. We both knew the truth; that he had decided to change you. I was broken and Mia was sad because I was in pain. The worst thing was that Mia couldn´t change me back since her venom only worked once. I had to live my new life.

The 108 years that followed was hard for both Mia and me, during one hundred years I only aged 3 years, which now meant that I could be past for an 17 or an 18 year old teenager. Mia and I were in Alaska when we heard about a family named Denali. It didn´t take us long to get enough information to figure out that they were vegetarian vampires. Mia visited them and played the role as a lonely nomad who had heard about the life of Carlisle Cullen and now wanted to find out if these vampires knew who he was. They told her that your family had lived in Alaska for a while and had moved to Forks two years ago.

Tanya apparently warned Mia that she had some kind of relationship with you and she was very excited when she came returned home that evening and told me that you were alive and still with Carlisle. When I heard that news, I was so excited and one week later I was in Forks and saw you in the cafeteria. You were even more beautiful than I remembered and, even though I had never thought it would be possible, your golden eyes were even more beautiful than the green color you had had as a human. From then you know the whole story." I finished my hand still resting on my loves cheek. Edward closed his eyes and leaned into my hand. When his eyes opened again they were the beautiful gold color that I loved so much.

"How do I know you´re not lying?" He asked, but his voice and eyes were soft. As soon as he had said those words I allowed all the walls around my mind fall. I saw how Edward's eyes widened before he focused on the memories I was showing him. My first meeting with him a century ago, my fight with Mia, my change and everything that had happened after my chance. When I closed my mind again he looked down at me with such love it felt like my body was set on fire. I felt how his lips crushed into my own and the intensity in the kiss. Our mouths moved fast and desperately against each other in an attempt to show the other the love and affection we held for each other. Our tongues battled and when I realized a deep moan Edward drawback for a moment, his eyes coal black.

"I love you" He said in a deep and husky voice which caused me to shiver.

"I love you too." I said before lust got too much of us and I once again placed my lips on his. My whole body was burning with desire and the years I had waited for my love had been worth the pain. Nothing in the world could compare to the feeling of Edward's lips on mine or his hands travelling over my body. It wasn´t before I heard a small crushing sound that I realized we had moved and that I now was pushed up against the mountain behind us. I didn´t care though instead I just warped my legs around Edward´s waist while our tongs battled for dominance. The sound of cloths being ripped to pieces barley registered in my mind, because all I could think of was the wonderful man in front of me and how much I loved him.

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I was lying on my side and felt Edward's hand tracing along bare my back. The morning sun had just risen and I saw how my skin started to sparkle in the sunlight. I let out a content sigh when I felt Edward pressing his lips to my neck. Giggling I rolled onto my back so I could face him. He lay on the side with one arm keeping up his head so he looked down at me. He gave me a loving smile before he gave a light kiss, now on the lips.

"I have a question." He said.

"Mhmm.."

"When I read both Renee´s and Charlie´s minds the saw you as their daughter and no one else in Forks thought differently. How is that possible if you were born over 3 000 years ago?" He asked his eyes having curios look.

"Just a few years after Nathaniel's death Mia and I were in China. There we met a vampire who could erase and replace the past of any creature, giving them a new past I guess you could say." I saw Edward´s eyes widen a little when he realized the power of this vampire. "We didn´t kill him. For some reason we trusted him and he helped us many times after that. One of those times was when he changed the past of Charlie and Renee causing them to believe I was their daughter."

"But why did you choose Charlie and Renee?" Edward asked.

"Charlie had never been married, he had never had a daughter and he lived his life in loneliness. Renee had been together with Phil for a few years when we picked her. She and Phil had been trying to get children, but it had turned out that Renee couldn´t bear children. So we simply gave Charlie the family he had never had and Renee the child she never could have." I told him and I saw the adoration shining from his eyes.

"You always think of others don´t you?" He said with a thick voice. I diced not to answer that question; instead I buried my face in his chest drawing in his scent. His arms locked around me and I felt how him burying his face in the crock of my neck.

"Do you have any more questions?"

"How come Mia sent her your heart when she found out you were getting married?"

"What if that is another of our secrets?" My voice was low and I immediately felt that Edward tensed.

"Then I have to precede you to tell me why then, don´t you think?" He said before he threw us around so he was on top of me and once again his lips were attached to mine. This kiss was slower than the others we had shared since we got here, but I still felt how the world started spinning. Then he draw back I was forced to take a few deep breaths before I could answer.

"I had worn Mia´s heart since she ripped it out since she felt the full extent of her pain if she touched her heart, but when moved to Forks I gave it back to her, not wanting to get unwanted questions I couldn´t answer. She sent it back to me because she knew the risks of a human getting to close to a vampire." I saw Edwards confused expression and smiled a little. "Yes, she knew I could get pregnant and I guess she knew the risks that could put us in if someone found out."

"Hmm…" I heard from him and a small giggle escaped my lips. Edward face flashed into that crocked grin I loved so much and I felt how my breath hitched, causing him to smile even wider. If I had been human I would have blushed.

"I think it´s time for us to go home. We´ve been gone for nearly a day and I think it´s time someone, me, tries to control my sister, at least a little." I tried to get up from the ground but Edward still held me down.

"Bella honey, we have no clothes." Edward said looking at me amused, causing me to roll my eyes.

"I know that _mister smartass_ and I also know my sister. I am almost completely sure she already has found five million things that she thinks we have missed doing with Renesmee since she was born and she has to make up for that. _So _there is no risk they will be at the house."

"If you say so" Edward said before he dragged me up on my feet, taking my hand and started running through the forest.

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Edward´s POV

I was standing in mine and Bella´s closet in our cottage and waited for Bella to get clothed. It had turned out that she was right up on the mountain, no one had been at the "house" when we came back. As much as I loved seeing Bella happy, it was a little annoying knowing that her sister knew her better than I did.

It was also very hard to grasp all the things Bella had done to be to be with me, a total stranger. She had given up her mortal life, looked after me for over 100 years and scarified her life every single second she had been with me when she was "human". That she had known about me extreme lust for her blood only made it all harder to understand. It also increased the quilt I had felt ever since I left her. She had given up so much for me and I had left her. I knew Bella didn´t blame me, but still…

"How do I look?"

I turned around and saw my beautiful wife. It still was a little strange to see her golden eyes which showed her true age, but they were more beautiful than her brown eyes had ever been. She wore a pair of black jeans and a dark blue shirt. Her hair was up in a bun and her sister's heart hang on her chest. She was beautiful no matter what she was wearing.

"You look beautiful." I told her and looking at her I felt whole for the first time. Ever since I had met Bella I had been confused by the strong bond we had made so quickly. For the rest of my family it had taken years to come to the same level in their relationship that Bella and I had gotten to in a few months. Now I understood that Bella had waited for me over three thousand years, and I had longed for her over century without really knowing it.

Suddenly I understood that, even though neither Bella nor Mia had said this, a vampire's love for someone grew for each hour, minute and even second. Bella had been alone for so long… I didn´t even want to think about the pain I caused her when I left her.

"You look troubled." My love said and placed her hand on my cheek, a concerned look in her face.

"Just thinking" I told her. I saw that she didn´t believe me, but she didn´t say anything else. Instead she let her hand fall from my cheek and I already missed her warm touch. Her hand went to her sister's heart and she as grasped it, I felt how her shield disappeared.

"_Maria" _I heard her silence voice say and I was going to ask her what she was doing when I, to my big surprise, heard her sister answer to her call.

"_BELLA! I asked your daughter this morning if she wanted to play Hide and Seek and she looked at me and she asked; "What is Hide and seek"?! "How can you not have played that game with your daughter?!"_

"_You know Mia, I have no idea. I must have forgotten." _Bella really did sound a little lost. _"Anyway where are all of you now?"_

"_Well the last person I saw was Emmett as he tried to hide in a tree, and that was five minutes ago."_

"_You are totally hopeless you know how are we now going to… Wait, can you meet me and Edward at the meadow in two minutes?"_

"_Ohh, you must have a plan dear sister, I hear that!"_

"_Yes I do. Bay the way, do you know the way to the meadow from where you are now?"_

"_Bells, I could tell you the way to Burma from where I am now. See you soon. Oh and I´ll see you soon too Edward! I know you are hearing this. You really need to make sure our conversations become secret again Bella, you know I don´t like other listening. "_

It all became quiet around me and I looked down at Bella who had her mouth open as if she was going to start explaining what just happened.

"I don´t want to know" Was all I said before I headed towards the door. I really didn´t think I could handle more information right now. I heard Bella giggling behind me as she followed.

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**So what do you think? If you have any questions, just ask them and I will try to answer them as well as I can.**

**Now please Review!**

**/Lysistrate**


	8. When ancient vampires collide

**So it was about time I updated this story don´t you think? I am really sorry fot that it took this long, but now just enjoy the chapter!**

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**Chapter 8**

Edward´s POV  
Bella and I walked together through the forest holding hands. We didn´t talk with each other but conversation was not needed, just being together was enough. After only a few minutes we reached our meadow and I felt a little disappointed when I saw that Maria was already there waiting for us._ No more alone time _I thought to myself but I saw from the distance how Maria smiled in my direction. It still felt weird that she could read my thoughts.

"Where is everyone?" My Bella asked her sister as we walked closer to Maria.

"They are somewhere in the area. Not more than a few kilometers away. They should all be able to hear us if we screamed loud enough." Maria said and sounded like she wanted to skip the small talk and Bella to get to her plan.

"Good." Bella just said looking at her sister who seemed to get even more irritated when Bella not chose to evaluate her answer more.

"So?" She said.

"So what?" Bella said tilting her head a little to the side. It was very funny watching them because when you did, you could never in your wildest dreams believe that Bella and her sister were over 3000 years old. It was also wonderful to see how my angel let go of all of her responsibilities when she was around her sister and could act childish for once.

"Your plan?" Maria said sounding like she was talking to a child. Then I was how a devilish smirk appeared in her face and I looked down at Bella. She had a similar expression on her face as well. They were both staring at each other, as if they were trying to calculate what the other was going to do next.

"What is going on?" I asked looking between the two trying to read them, but it was impossible.

"Mia and I found out a way to always attract everyone in a close area by one simple act many years ago and since it was a long time we trained together I thought this could be a good opportunity to do so." Bella said looking up at me as she encircled her arms around my waist.

"You mean you are going to start a fight?" I stated smiling down at her. It would be interesting to watch Maria and Bella fight since it was obvious they were both very good fighters. Still a small part of me worried for Bella's safety even though I knew that her sister probably would be last person in the world, after me, who would hurt my love.

"I think you can put it that way if you want to." She said. The smile she had worn before back on her face. Quickly I leaned down and gave her a light kiss whispering a "good luck" in her ear before I walked to give the two fighters some space.

"You two are nearly too cute." Maria said and shook her head. Then both she and Bella took three long and fast steps backwards increasing the distance between them by a few hundred meters. "Have you ever seen fight between two ancient vampires before Edward?" Maria said, talking with me directly for the first time. She didn´t look at me though, her eyes was locked at my Bella.

"No I haven´t." I told her honestly.

"Then watch closely." She laughed before she ran towards my love in a speed which was very fast even for a vampire. To my big surprise Bella moved equally as fast as she started to run towards her sister as well. It only took them one second and a half to reach the other and I barely had time to see how Maria got a hold of Bella´s arm before a loud bang echoed through the forest. Somehow Bella had been able to take advantage of her speed to move around her sister and land with an extreme force on Maria´s back. Maria flew over the meadow and it looked as if she was going to fly right into a tree.

Instead she managed to turn in the air and grab a hold of a tree trunk, still faced towards Bella. A deep growl was heard from Bella´s chest while she watched her sister, trying to foresee Maria´s next move. I watched them both very closely but still I got no warning when Maria suddenly flew down the tree and landed on the ground. Bella on the other hand had somehow seen what her sister had been thinking and was attacking Maria the second she connected to the ground.

After that began the most intense and most technically complicated battle I had ever seen. For most of the time it was impossible to understand how my angel and her sister managed to escape the others ones attack, but they did. I barely noticed that the rest of my family and the wolves had joined us at the meadow and was now also staring at the battle. Then an extra loud crash was heard. I saw how Bella and Maria were thrown back by the power of an attack where they had slammed into each other. Maria did a back flip in the air so she landed on her feet while Bella landed on her hands and then, like an acrobat, pushed herself into the air turning her body so she also landed on her feet.

They looked at each other smiling before both of them rose from their crouches.

"You have become slow sister, though I noticed that you have learned some new tricks." Maria said walking over to Bella. My family and the wolves all screamed one thing in their minds: _WHAT? _I agreed with them looking at Maria in shock. THAT was slow? Not even Jasper would have been able to keep up for a few seconds in a fight like that.

"I blame it on my human years." Bella said shrugging her shoulders as if it was no big deal. "We will have time to practice more before the Volturi comes."

"Y… You… Yo…" Emmett began stuttering from behind me and I turned around to look at him. He was looking at Bella in awe and it hadn´t surprised me if he had run forward to kiss the ground at her feet. He couldn't understand what just had happened. Bella and Maria on the other hand shared a quick look before Bella skipped over to Rosalie and took Neisse in from her returning to stand by my side while Maria walked over to Emmett.

"Would you like me to teach you?" Maria said and Emmett awoke from his trance.

"It would be an honor." His response was not the one anyone would have expected. A "_hell yeah" _would have been more Emmett´s style. Maria though didn´t seem to have expected anything else. She just gave him a quick nod before she gave her offer to the wolves as well. An offer they gladly accepted.

"Do Aro, Caius and Marcus own the same skill as you and Bella?" Carlisle asked Maria. Bella was talking with our daughter, answering the questions she had about what she had seen. At the mentioning of the Volturi leaders I put my arm around Bella´s shoulder, feeling the need to protect her and keep her close. As I did so she threw me a loving gaze before turning her attention back to Nessie.

"Yes they do." Maria answered Carlisle's question. "But it has been many hundred years since they left their thrones in Volterra so they will be slow and their skill will be reduced. At least in the beginning." Her voice turned bitter at the end. The thought of that Bella would have to fight anyone the way she did now made my heart ache. I had seen that she could defend herself, but I wasn´t as sure as Maria that the three brothers would be as slow as she seemed to think. _Then again Vladimir and Stefan did say she knows Aro better than anyone. Maybe they can consider helping Bella and her sister train._

Then I saw that Maria was staring at me intensely.

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**Bella´s POV  
**I saw how my sister´s expression changed into disbelief as she stared at Edward. I looked at him and I saw that he looked uncomfortable under her staring gaze so I diced to brake in.

"Why are you staring at my husband?" I asked her. I could hear that my voice was sounding suspicious, but I knew my sister well enough to notice when something was bothering her.

"I think I am losing my mind but I think he just mentioned Vladimir and Stefan in his thoughts." She said. Now everyone was staring at her in disbelief. Myself I got a very guilty expression on my face. Once Maria saw it she closed her eyes and I could literally see how she was counting to ten, trying to calm down.

"Bells you know as well as I do that those two only want to regain their power and that we can´t help them with that." She said her eyes still closed. I knew what she said had been true once; they had followed us for a few years. But something about how they had acted since they came here had started to make me change my mind.

"I thought so too, but I have been watching them closely for the week they have been here and it seems as if they just want revenge. I think they have realized that the world have changed too much for them to be able to rule over our world again. Also they won't dare to defy us." I said with confidence. My sister only shook her head, but didn´t say anything so I turned to Edward instead. "Why did you think of Vladimir and Stefan?" He looked a little stressed.

"I think I can answer that." Carlisle said and both my sister and I turned to him. "Yesterday morning, when I sent after Edward, Stefan and Vladimir came up to my office. They said they had some important information and told us a story about three ancient vampires, or as we have now figured out, you."

"Huh, sounds just like them. Always liked to give someone hope in the last minute just to crush it the next second. That is what they used to do with their prisoners as well." Mia said pausing a little before she continued. "Maybe we should pay them a little visit, it wouldn´t hurt to give the vampires who are ready to defend our family some hope don´t you think Bells?" As an answer I just nodded, I couldn´t agree more.

"Your family?" It was the first thing Esme had said since she had found out about my past. I saw her looking between me and my sister, teas in her eyes. My sister gave her a warm smile.

"You have treated my little sister better than anyone else ever could have done. You gave her a family when I couldn´t and you have filled the hole in her which I have seen since the day she was turned thousands of years ago. I would never consider you anything less than a part of my family." Mia told with a warm voice and she walk up to Esme, giving her a hug. We all heard the "Thank You" she told to the vampire I now considered as a mother and even though they both knew we all heard, the message was still the same.

Then I noticed that the sky had started to turn red, we had been wasting a lot of time. It was only two days left before the Volturi would arrive. We needed to get moving.

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We all walked slowly back to the Cullen´s mansion where we knew all of the other vampires would be gathered. Nessie was walking next to my sister in front of the rest of us, eagerly asking her questions about everything and nothing. It was a blessing watching the effect my daughter had on my older sister. For the first time since Nate's death she seemed truly happy and peaceful. Edward now had his arm around my waist, me leaning into him. Sometimes he would lean down and give me kiss on the forehead.

Emmett and Rosalie were walking behind us with, to Rose´s annoyance, Seth. Jacob and Leah were on our right (with the motivation that Jacob couldn´t stand Edwards smell) and Carlisle and Esme were on our left. We were all talking (with Edward as translator) even though most of the time it was me answering different questions. Everyone seemed surprised over the huge amounts of knowledge I had been collecting over the years and when Esme told me that I just laughed, telling her it was nothing compared to my sisters wisdom.

Then we finally saw the Cullen´s house through the trees and Maria slowed down, walking next to me before she stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Here this is yours, you should wear it." She said as she gave me dark blue cloak that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The cloak had golden threads in it, which created hundreds of different patterns. The patterns changed depending on how you looked at the cloak, always becoming different types of pictures. In awe I stroked my hand over my old cloak. I remembered every single time I had worked with it, thinking out different types of ways to create patterns which would represent the history of my sister, Nathaniel and me. It had become my most precious possession and I always wore it. Over the years it had started to lose some of its original color, but it was over 3000 years old so that was only natural.

"You have kept it for all these years?" I asked my sister in disbelief and she smiled at me.

"You worked so hard on that one that I couldn't throw it away could I? Besides it wouldn´t have been fair to just keep my own when I know you put down a lot more work on yours." As she said that I saw how she took out her own cloak which was a lighter color of blue than mine with silver threads instead of golden, making them harder to see. Still it wasn´t hard to make out the patterns for vampire eyes.

"Have you really made these Mommy?" My daughter said staring in awe at the cloak in my hand. That was when I noticed that the rest of my family was staring at the two cloaks as well.

"Yes I did, a long time ago, when I had nothing better to do during the days and nights. Now I have you, your father and the rest of our family." I told her. She looked up into my eyes before she gave me a big hug. I lifted her up with one hand and kept her in place as I put on my cloak with my other hand, leaving the hood down. On instinct I swept my cloak around Renesmee as well, hiding most of her and my right arm.

"You sure are full of surprises Bella." Esme said as she moved forward looking closer at my cloak. "What would you say about making cloaks as these with our crest in future? Of course I will help you as much as I possibly can." She looked at me with glittering eyes and it felt good to know that she still thought we had a future after this.

"I would love to." I told her but of course Mia had to interfere.

"I would keep away though if I were you. I tried to help her once and I was ripped into pieces when I did something wrong, metaphorically." She added quickly. "Now we don´t have time to stand here, we have a meeting with two Rumanians. Although they don´t know it yet." As she said that she started to walk towards the mansion, putting her cloak on in the process.

I mimed the words _"She is hopeless_" to my husband only to hear my sister shouting an upset "I heard that!" Everyone started laughing as we followed her out of the forest.

As we emerged from the forest I could see that all of the vampires visiting us were standing outside trying to figure out what was going on. Mia had her hood up and they couldn´t see her face. Then they saw me and I could see how some of them draw after their breaths and I could nearly see how the minds of the others were racing, trying to figure out how I could have changed so rapidly in such a short amount of time. I saw that Stefan and Vladimir were standing in the background. Mia had seen the two Rumanians in the back the same second I did and her strong gaze landed on them.

"So you two are the ones who followed in our footsteps trying to get our help. You are tinier than I thought you would be considering you were the rulers of our world once." Her tone sounded bored, but I knew that was an act. In reality she thought this was funny. Vladimir and Stefan though stuttered with anger.

"You call us tiny!" Stefan began.

"You are not very big yourself considering you are supposed to be one of the most powerful vampires on this earth…." Vladimir continued.

"And where are your two companions."

"I am here." I said and I saw the Rumanians mumbled the word impossible. The rest of the vampires around seemed confused about what we were talking about. Everyone except the Cullens and the wolves that is. "Our third companion was killed by the Volturi 2500 years ago which caused us to go into hiding. That was also the reason why we refused to talk or help you during the years you searched for us." I had given Nessie to Edward and walked to stand by my sister's side.

"But you were a human, we know you were." Vladimir said trying to understand the situation.

"We are the most powerful vampires alive, we have our ways." Mia said.

"How do we really know you are two of the three vampires Aro hates so much?" Stefan's questioned. Mia took off her hood, allowing everyone to see her face which was stone hard.

"You two ruled the vampire world for over a thousand years along with three other vampires who were all killed by Aro and his brothers. You two managed to escape during the battle although you were both severely hurt. When you had regained your strength you began the hunt after my sister and me. Your goal was to make us help you to defeat the three brothers and regain you control over our world. Now though you only want revenge and, using your own words: Aro Volturi´s head on a platter." The two Rumanians looked at each other.

"We believe…"

"You really are…"

"Two of the three vampires." They said.

"Very well then." I began. "At least we are working towards the same goal then since we also carve Aro´s defeat, possibly even more than you do. So in this case we will help you to defeat Aro and the rest of the Volturi. You will get your revenge and we will get ours."

"But if we sense anything which can mean that you are trying to gain power we will kill you. Personally." Mia said, her voice cold as ice and smashing through the air as a whip. All the vampires around took a step back, feeling the threat hanging in the air.

Then my sisters face changed into her warm smile again as she turned around towards Emmett and the wolves.

"You wanted me to train you, now is a perfect time." She said as she began walking over to the open place behind the house. "Oh and if anyone else wants to join you are free to do so." She called out to the others around, Emmett and the wolves following her.

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**So what do you think? Just one chapter left before the Volturi arrives so hold out ;)**

**/Love Lysistrate**


	9. I need help! Please read

Hello everyone! I am very sorry that this isn´t a chapter but I really, **really**, need **your** help!

Okay so two weeks ago I began school again after the summer and in the beginning of this week we got our first assignment in English called** "Fact or Fiction". **We are going to find out what kind of stereotypes and prejudice there is about Sweden and it is here** I need your help**.

I need you to tell me what kind of** stereotypes you have/know **about Sweden. I would be extremely grateful if you can take your time doing this to help me out. As a thank you I will send you a small **sneak peak** of the next chapter of this story. (I have begun working on a new chapter for both of my stories.) **So if you want to help me out, and be given a small preview, you can either review or send me a message.**

**Thank you all very much on beforehand.**

**/Love Lysistrate**


	10. I do not want you to leave!

**So Chapter 9 :) It feels so strange that this story soon will be over. There are just two more chapters that I have planned, if there becomes one extra I can´t answer right now. Only time can tell that.**

**So hopefully you will enjoy this chapter where the story id beginning to pick up a lot of speed and opens for the Volturis arrival in the next chapter.**

**Also I want to thank all of you that help me out by sending me stereotypes about Sweden. I will have my oral presentation on Wednesday so hopefully it will turn out good. **

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**Chapter 9  
Bella´s POV**

****A few hours; that was all the time we had left before the Volturi would arrive. The atmosphere which had been light and happy just one day earlier was now dull and dark. Or at least that was how it was for me and my sister. Everyone else were still optimistic that everything would turn out okay, that we all would survive and that we would be able to go back to our old lives. But I could feel in the depts of my very being that nothing would ever be the same after this day.

And that feeling scared me. It scared me more than anything else in the whole world because I had felt it one time before during my long existents and what had happened that time was such a painful memory that I couldn´t even bare myself to think about it.

I looked over at Edward and my daughter where they were sitting in the grass along with Zafrina and Jake. All of them were laughing and that Jake dared to be in his human form around all of these vampires warmed my heart. He would stay with my daughter; he would look after her and protect her with his life. It was out of fear I had attacked him that first day of my second life, fear that after imprinting on my daughter he would treat her like an adult. Like my father had done. Now I knew the thought had been stupid, I knew Jake and I trusted him. Inside the house I could hear Esme and Carlisle talking with the Denalis, all of them trying to catch up with the time that they had lost, and on the backside of the house…

"I have told you; DO NOT ATTACK HEAD ON!" My sister's angry voice echoed through the forest and I heard the usual ripping sound that always came afterwards. Sighing I ran to the backside of the house and saw Emmett and my sister standing in the middle of a circle made out of vampires and wolves watching them. Emmett was just about to reattach his right arm to his body while my sister was glaring at him from across the circle. I don´t think anyone ever could have imagined how Maria was going to train them, but ripping peoples limbs off and braking bones was probably not one of them.

I had been painfully aware of that fact though. When Mia and I had been newborns Nate had trained us in battle, but not the way my sister did. He had had an endless patience and in the end it had turned out the way he had planned; both me and my sister being able to beat him in battle when we really put our mind into it. Mia though who didn´t have her lost mates patience believed in a different approach.

"Was it not a little unnecessary to do that dear sister?" I asked and I all eyes turned to look at me. It hadn´t taken long for the others staying at the Cullens to learn that I was the only one who my sister listened to, and the other way around. They had also learned that I was the more… gentle one out of the two of us. Now Mia turned to me, an innocent smile on her face.

"Bella! Well I just thought he could learn something from it, like not attacking head on when I have told him not to." I looked at her with a very skeptical expression on my face and put my hand on Emmett´s shoulder since I now had reached him.

"Really? Then maybe I can remind you that Emmett is my brother just as much as you are my sister and remember the last time when you lost a limb?" I told Mia smirking towards her a little as she looked at me in disbelief.

"You wouldn´t." She whispered still staring at me.

"Try me." I challenged her and in a second I could see the decision forming in her eyes. With great power I threw Emmett backwards as Mia ran forward trying to get a hold of him. With a growl I tackled her into the side, both of us flying through the air. I landed on top of Mia just to be thrown of her with an enormous force. To everyone watching this, it looked like a real fight, but we were really just playing around. In the end though, I won and Mia theatrically fell to the ground, pretending to die before she angrily picked up her cloak and stomped into the forest muttering loudly to herself. Always the drama queen when she lost.

"Thanks Bells, I really didn´t feel for having my arm ripped off once again." Emmett had walked up behind me and his eyes were locked at the spot where my sister had disappeared. "She isn´t really angry is she?" His nervous tone made me laugh loudly. I saw that Emmett gave me a look that questioned my sanity.

"You all may have spent these two days training with Maria but you clearly don´t know her very well. She was never angry, she just becomes frustrated easily. And being beaten by your little sister can hurt the pride a little. Also she is _very _good at exaggerating." I could tell that everyone was listing intensely to what I was saying. It had become some kind of game the last days. Who knew most about the ancient vampires?

"Ohh…" Emmett simply said and looked a little sheepish.

"So what did you mean Bella?" Seth suddenly asked from the edge of the circle looking at me with an eager look in his eyes. I looked back at him confused.

"You have lost me." I told him.

"What did you mean when you told your sister to remember what happened last time she lost a limb?" He clarified rolling his eyes, obviously thinking that I was slow for not keeping up with him.

"Oh that! It was really nothing. A few years ago Maria and I _accidently_ managed to bother a few vampires when we were in Kenya. We got into a fight and Mia wasn´t paying as much attention as she should have done. One of the men we were fighting ripped her left hand off and in rage I kind of ripped the remaining vampires in two pieces instead with one blow. The man who had ripped her hand of we ripped apart piece by piece, throwing them on the fire so he could feel himself burning up. The feeling must have been horrible." My voice was casual, but the ones surrounding me was starring wide eyed. For not the first time I was glad that I couldn´t read minds.

"But that was ages ago; only Aro could possibly bring such a reaction from either of us these days. Now Em, what do you say about giving this training another go?"

"Good! Very good even, a big improvement from yesterday!" I said from my spot where I was sitting on Emmett´s back, effectivelyholding him down on the ground. He had managed to hold me off for about one minute, even though I had used my speed which gave me a huge advantage. I got off from his back and Emmett rose from the ground and I could see that he was a little embarrassed for not being able to stand his ground a little longer. What he didn´t know was that he probably was the only one who could keep a stand against me and my sister, everyone else would have been dead after their first move.

"No one else who wants a last go?" I asked, not a single one of the vampires in the circle around me answering. Not even one of the wolves seemed to be up for another chance to train. Shrugging my shoulders I looked at the watch I was wearing. Just two hours left. I felt how panic spread in my chest, so little time, it wasn´t enough. I looked at my daughter and my husband standing at the edge of the circle along with the rest of my family, all of watching me with a worried expression. I managed to compose my face into a calm mask before I spoke.

"We all need to get going. The Volturi will soon arrive at the meadow that Alice saw in her vision and we don´t want them to come there without anyone welcoming them do we?" When no one moved I glared at them. "Have you grown roots into the ground? Move!"

My angry voice helped and everyone began to run towards our destination. Some walked up to me, giving me a hug, a thank you or a good luck before they followed the other vampires that were leaving. Soon it was only my family left, including Jacob, Leah and Seth who had all transformed into their human form. I looked into my daughter's sad brown eyes, my eyes, and crouched down to the ground opening my arms. The fastest she could my little miracle, MY Renesmee, ran over to me throwing her arms around my neck.

I held her as close to me I possibly could without hurting her in any way as I stroke her silky bronze looks. Then I felt how something wet and warm hit my shoulder. She was crying, my angel was crying!

"I _don´t_ want… you to… leave mommy." She managed to say through the sobs which made her whole body shake. I felt a tremendous pressure over my chest and the stinging in my eyes as they filled with venom, venom which would never fall as tears. I couldn´t cry, but God did I wish I could. It felt as if my whole inside was breaking; as if the pressure and pain in my chest was going to rip it open.

"I have too baby, but just for a little while. We will see each other again, I will come back." My voice was thick as I looked over at the rest of my family, their faces twisted with a pain familiar to what I was feeling. Still they weren´t as old as I was, they could never truly understand. I saw that both Jacob and Seth had tears running in a steady stream down their cheeks and even Leah looked as if she wanted to cry.

"But _no one _wants you to leave mom." My daughter said into my hair.

"I know honey, I know." I whispered in her ear as I moved over to my family. For a moment I didn´t know what to do, but suddenly two slender arms wrapped around me and my daughter. Rosalie. She had accepted me after I choose to keep Nessie and we had grown close.

"I never hated you; I was afraid and so extremely stupid. I am so sorry." Rose chocked the words out and I leaned back a little looking into her glossy golden eyes.

"You have nothing to apologize for. I understand you and I understood you back then. You have always been like my older sister and I always loved you as one." I told her, allowing my voice to slowly return to its powerful tone to make her understand, taking her hand in mine.

"Sister. You will always be my sister as well." She told me with a sad smile and giving my hand a small squeeze. Nessie still clung to me when Emmett lifted me up in one of his famous bear hugs.

"You and your sister will have to keep on training me when we have kicked Volturis butt." He said trying to keep the mood up. He didn't succeed fully though.

Saying goodbye to Esme and Carlisle was extremely hard; both of them hugged me for a long time. Telling me I would always be their daughter and that they loved me to no end. I did feel safe with them and didn´t want to let them go. When I did I turned to Jacob and saw him looking at me, tears still running from his eyes.

"Oh Jake." I said before we both ignored the smell and hugged each other for a long time and just as in the old days, when Jake had been my sun, no words were needed. We understood the silent message passing between us and when I gave him a last pointing look he nodded as his eyes flew to Nessie in my arms.

Then lastly I turned to the only person who really mattered. Edward was standing looking at me with an agonized expression. I didn´t know what to say, no words could ever express what I was feeling nor what I wanted to say. I couldn't describe how much I loved him since it was stronger than anything that could ever be shown in any form. I took his hand in mine. The warmth of his hand both warmed me and caused me enormous pain. We had gotten so little time, so little time after all of those years in loneliness and longing. Longing for each other, to finally belong to the one we were made for. The one you could sacrifice your life for.

Edward lifted his hand and stroke my cheek, I closed my eyes at me sensation.

"I love you." Three simple words which meant so much, which could express more than thousands and thousands of words together, if the person saying them meant them. And there was no doubt that Edward did.

"I love you too." I said before I gave him a light kiss on his lips. It wasn´t afierce as the kisses we had shared on the mountain, still this one simple kiss meant so much more than any other we had shared. I looked up in his golden eyes and the pain and love I saw there had to be a match of my own. I knew it was time, I had to leave.

"Nessie, honey I need you to look at me." I carefully said and I felt how my daughter eased her grip around my neck. Soon I looked into her sad face and my whole inside twisted in pain.

"I have to go now darling." I began stroking her cheek and moving a few bronze locks out of her face. "And I need you go with dad and the others."

"Will I see you again mom?"

"Yes, I promise you will see me again. I could never leave you. I Love you more than my own life. All of you." I added the last part to everyone around me.

"I don't want you to go mom. Please stay with me, I love you so much." My Renesmee shouted in panic as I tried to give her to Edward. Then I did something that hurt more than anything else I had done in my entire existents. It hurt more than the time I lost Nate, _more than when I lost Edward. _I gave my daughter, my reason for living, to Edward as I forced her to let go of my neck. And once she was safe in her father's arms I turned away running in the opposite direction of the one the other vampires had taken.

"MOOMMY! MOMMY! COME BACK! PLEASE MOM DON´T LEAVE! I LOVE YOU! MOOMMM!" I nearly crumbled to the ground when I heard my daughter's screams from behind me, for a second I even heard light footsteps running after me and her breath which was heavy from the crying. Then someone must have got a hold of my angel because the sound stopped, as did I, falling to the ground sobbing as the world fell apart around me.

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"You did the right thing." My sister's voice was soft. We were walking through the forest. Just forty minutes left. Forty minutes, it was nothing. No time left in a sandglass which cannot be turned.

"No I didn´t, I should be there with them." I told her, my voice hollow and empty. For the moment it felt as if I was drained from all energy, a shell.

"And you will be. When Aro arrives you will stand by their side, but you know he has sent out scouts. He cannot find out about your change before the last minute. Otherwise he will have time to think and if he has time to think…"

"He will figure it out." I whispered as I stared straight ahead.

"Exactly."

"It is strange" I began "We all live our lives thinking we have all the time in the world. Forgetting that sometimes you have to live for the day and see the beauty of the world around you and the love you feel towards your family and the ones around you. I have lived so long; never understanding the mystery of life. And now when time is running out I finally understand. It is about the people you love, your family and friends. It is about seeing the gift we have been given, the chance to live here and now, to actually have a life. It is to see and feel the joy around you, to spend as much time with those you care for as possible since you never know when life is going to end." I looked into the serious face of my sister as she nodded her head.

"Therefore I have decided to try buying some more time, by giving my family what already belongs to them." I ended.

"You have felt it too." Mia stated.

"Yes, it is the same feeling I had the day we lost Nate which means…"

"Only one or neither of us is going to survive." Mia finished as we both stopped. There were just a few hundred meters to the place where my family was, but before I could see them again there were promises which had made and pain which had to be felt.

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**Edward´s POV**

We all saw her leave, my Bella and only love, to join her sister who had already left. The pain when I saw her disappear into the forest was even worse than it had been when I left her a year ago. Because this time I didn´t know if I would ever get her back and not knowing that, just knowing the danger she soon would be facing, made it feel as if the world was crumbling down.

In my arms Nessie was clinging hard to my shirt as if her life deepened on it as warm tears kept on falling from her eyes. My daughter. The daughter Bella gave me risking her own life in the process, just as she did now. Risking her and her sister's lives for the chance of giving everyone else the opportunity to live. I looked at my family standing around me and the wolves that stood on our side in this battle. We all wore the same broken expression and Esme was sobbing into Carlisle's chest as he held her close, trying to comfort her the best he could. In the reality though, he was just as close to breaking down as his wife.

Rose and Emmett were also holding onto each other both of them staring at the spot where Bella had disappeared into the forest. The only ones that were missing were Alice and Jasper. A sudden hate rushed through me. They had left, Alice must have seen this and she had turned her back on us, on Bella who had been her best friend. But the hate didn´t last, I knew Alice never would have done that. She must have seen a solution.

"We need to get going; mommy wanted us to join the others." My daughter suddenly said from her place in my arms and all of our heads snapped to her. She still looked sad, but now she had a collected look on her face and she had a presence which hadn´t been there before. Her voice had taken a more powerful and demanding tone and she sounded older than she had done just earlier this morning. Then I saw it. In the depts of her brown eyes, the eyes which ones belonged to my Bella, a fire had been lit. The same fire I had seen in Bella´s eyes before she left.

_She really is Bella´s daughter_ I heard Carlisle think and I looked at him as we began walking, silently agreeing with him. Nessie had jumped down from my arms and now walked beside me, holding my hand in her right and Jacob´s in her left. Carlisle was right. She really was Bella´s daughter and she had the same core as her mother. She could be caring and loving, but at the same time powerful and deadly when it came to protect her family and the memory of what had happened the day before flooded into my mind.

Mia had been standing in the living room of our house with a sour expression before she closed her eyes and used both my daughter´s power and Zafrina´s to show us the battle where she and Bella had lost Nate. There had been a lot of begging and threats from Bella´s side before Maria had agreed showing us the battle. But before she had done it she had made Bella promise to give her something back hesitantly my love had agreed. No one had known what Mia meant, but Bella apparently did so we had not asked them about it.

Then we all had been dragged down into the memory of Maria and Bella and I had heard everyone's thoughts screaming that they wanted to return. They did not want to see what was before them. Maria had shown us an open field seen from a small hill. In the center of the field Maria was fighting an enormous force of newborns along with a dark haired male vampire. He had been a head taller than Maria and his body had been more muscular than Jasper´s, but not as extreme as Emmett´s. It was obvious that he had been considered beautiful, even to vampire. His long hair had been flowing around him like a black cloak, matching the hair of his mate. Nathaniel.

Then Maria had used Nessie´s power to add something similar to sound and smell. A constant ripping had appeared and in the air there had been a sweet sent from all the bodies which were being burned as they were ripped apart. Suddenly the perspective had changed and it had become a mix of Bella´s vision and her sister. Giving us a spectator's point of view. I saw how a young Bella, more a child than woman, stood on the hill before a powerful growl ripped through the air as a whip; causing the newborns to back away in fear and turn to look at my love. Maria and Nathaniel on the other hand had both smiled happily before they once again attacked the now distracted newborns from behind.

I saw how Bell joined the battle, slowly fighting her way towards Nathaniel and her sister. Countless of times she had been bit, but she always managed to survive the deadly grip of the newborns around her. After half an hour all the newborns were dead and Mia ran over to my Bella, hugging her hard until Nathaniel joined them in the hug. Bella gave him a concerned and loving look and for a second I was jealous before I registered the ruby color of her eyes. She had told us she had been hunting humans, but the crimson red color still looked so wrong and misplaced in her face. It made her less the woman I loved and more alike the vampire that she was.

Then I saw how Aro, Caius and Marcus suddenly appeared out of the thick purple smoke which came from the fires burning from the pieces of the vampires. The pure hatred in Aro´s and Marcus´ eyes was like nothing I had ever seen. Caius had just looked smug.

The six vampires had been standing watching each other for a long time before Aro said something which Mia didn´t share with us, but caused her to fly forward in her memory. Marcus jumped in front of Aro and as Nathaniel and Bella ran towards their mate and sister, Aro and Caius joined the battle.

Now I knew what Maria had meant with Bella being slow. The battle was powerful and enchanting at the same time. Then Marcus seemed to get the upper hand on Maria and bit down at her neck. A scream was heard and we all saw how Nate turned towards his mate, forgetting about Aro. Aro reached forward and got a hold of Nathaniel´s head, and before he had time to react, Aro had ripped it off; Nathaniel's body collapsing to the ground. The look and Maria´s face was heart breaking to look at, the pain so present that you could feel it through the memory, and somehow she managed to break free from Marcus grip ripping both of his arms off in the process.

But before she had time to attack Aro my Bella had run forward, grabbing her sister around the waist and dragging her away while Maria´s cries of pain and hatred had echoed over the fields.

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Just a few minutes after we had arrived at the meadow the forest suddenly turned deadly quite. All the birds stopped singing and a cold feeling started to spread in the air. No one dared to say anything or move a muscle for a very long time. The only thing that was heard was the feather light beating of my daughter's heart and the more powerful heartbeats coming from the wolves. After what seemed like an eternity we heard footsteps emerging quickly from the forest to our right.

"MOMMY!" My daughter´s cry was heard before she ran the fastest she could towards my love that was walking towards us. She had a very tired expression on her face, but when she lifted our daughter from the ground holding her close to her chest it vanished, making it hard to believe it had ever been there at all. When everyone saw Bella scared whispers began to spread between all of our allies standing in the meadow and I saw how my family was staring at disbelief at Bella as well, she shouldn't have returned before the Volturi already was here. Taking them off guard had been a part of the plan.

"There have been a change of plans." She simply said as she walked over to me, as if she was reading my mind, before she took my hand in hers. I felt something hard being pressed between our hands before Bella let go, my hand encircling the object she had pressed into my palm.

"I couldn´t leave you. I love you too much." She whispered to me as I opened my hand and looked down at the object laying there. It looked like a red diamond, shinning with a soft but powerful shade of orange-red. I had only seen that type of object once before in my existences... With wide eyes I looked into Bella´s calm ones.

"You cannot give me your heart." I whispered to her.

"It already belongs to you and it always will. Keep it safe for me and no matter what happens today we will still have eternity." Before I had time to protest or ask her what she meant, Bella turned away, looking into the depths of the forest and her low voice was clearly hard in the silence that laid over the meadow.

"They are here."

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**So did you like it? I know this chapter isn´t very long but the next one will probably be one the longest in this story. **

**Please****Review!**

**/Love Lysistrate**


	11. When the world falls apart

**So finally the final chapter in this story, there will be some lose ends, but they will all be tied togheter in the epiloge. I am very sorry for the time it has taken me to write this chapter, but I can promise the next not will take this long and that I will fisnish my other story some day ;)**

**Now there will probably be thousends of errors in this chapter but I wanted to get it publsihed since I have felt quilty for so long for keeping you guys waiting. Hopefully you'll enjoy.**

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****Chapter 10**

**Edward´s POV**

The silence which spread over the meadow after Bella´s words had been spoken was suffocating. No one moved a muscle except my love who carefully took my hand in her own and there we stood; Bella at my side with our daughter on her hip, family and friends around us along with the wolves. A slight breeze made the women's long hair slightly sway in the wind and mix all the different scents around us in the air. Then they emerged from the forest. A perfect line which was perfectly in sync and moving as one. Their great numbers at first stunned us all for a moment until we realized that the vampires in the back didn´t belong to the Volturi, they were here as witnesses just like our friends were for us. When everyone had entered the meadow they all stopped for a moment before Aro, Caius and Marcus allowed their hoods to fall down from their faces. The rest of the guard and the wives did the same all did the same.

"Well I must say that you have quite a big welcoming committee for us, have you not Carlisle my dear friend?" Aro said with a friendly tone, breaking the silence. Bella stiffened at my side and I could hear a faint growl comming from the Rumanians.

"And I am surprised you brought the whole guard considering this was just a friendly visit Aro." Carlisle answered with the same tone of voice. Aro answered by giving him a faint smile.

"Well you can never be safe enough when you travel can you? Now where is this child that we have heard so much about?" Aro said looking straight at my daughter, his eyes fixed on her face searching for some kind of sign that she would be a an immortal child. When he couldn´t find any his face fell for a second and his eyes traveled on to my wife causing him to freeze on the spot as his eyes winded. Not noticing his stiff posture was impossible and it immediately caught the attention of both Caius and Marcus who at first both threw a quick glance at Bella before both of them stiffened as well while Bella just stared back at them with calm and ice cold expression.

All the minds of the Volturi leaders were racing at full speed, memories which had been created thousands of years ago became clear as the day and they all tried to understand what they saw. Then a transformation occurred right in front of our eyes, Marcus´s numb face suddenly came to life and the emotionless expression he usually wore turned into a mask of pure anger and hate. But before he had the time to do anything Aro placed a hand on his shoulder holding him back, still staring wide eyed at his former enemy. Then he got a smug expression on his face.

"So you are allowing your dear friend Zafrina playing one of her mind games on us Carlisle, I must say it is smart move but you see the vampire you are asking her to portray was killed hundreds of years ago by an Chinese vampire, I saw him killing her myself when I touched him and got access to all of his memories. Just so you know I had planned on leaving you all without hurting you in any way but now when I look at your little gathering I see it more as a rebellion than just friends helping each other. I am sorry dear old friend…"

"Come on Aro you denying my existence is pathetic!" Bella´s eyes burned with raw power and without actually thinking I took our daughter from her mother's arms afraid of what would happen next. "The vampire who came to you all those years ago was and still is loyal to me and my sister. We sent him to you since he has the power to manipulate memories, everything you think you saw that day he simply planted in your mind."

"That means your sister…" Caius said not looking anything near as sure as he usally did.

"…is still alive yes." Bella said smiling towards the Volturi leaders and as she said that she suddenly faded away, disappearing from my side. Everyone gathered on Aro´s side of the field was confused at how this situation had developed while the guard was still trying to figure out how they would act. Never befoer had they seen their leaders losing the control of a situation before. Then something happened that none of us had been expecting. From the same direction Bella had appeared from just a few minutesearlier you could hear the sound of laughter and then two young women became visible. Both of them had their hair in some strange construction on their heads and what looked like sheets was wrapped around their bodies. They had olive skin which was a little sunburned and they were wearing sandals. One of them couldn't be much older than fifteen and looked oddly familiar.

"Bella" I whispered as I recognized my wife, I had never understood how much of her vampire traits she had kept when she became human again or how much she really had grown. Maria also looked different with scars on her arms, probably from her fathers abuse. No one understood anything at all; how could they be here alive and human, looking the same as they must have done over 3000 years ago?

Bella and Maria didn't seem aware of us at all; instead they simply walked into the meadow talking with each other in fluid Latin. Then Aro took a step towards them and everything changed, it was like watching the transformation into a vampire in a few seconds instead of days. With a loud shriek they both threw themselves at the Volturi leader and starteled he backed a few steps, his brothers both stepping forward to meet the attackers. But that wasn´t needed because before any of them reached the sisters my love and Maria disappeared, turning into black smoke.

Aro's face suddenly turned into a mask of rage as his glowing red eyes turned to my father.

"So the Rumanians have told you about the past have they not Carlisle? You thought that you could trick us with visions of hybrid children and humans who fall in love with vampires. We were your friends and supported you and you thank us with trying to overthrow us, because that is what all of this is about isn´t it? An attempt to overpowering us! Well I will tell you that I will personally find pleasure in ripping you and your family apart piece by piece!" A reaction as strong as this had not been expected and the usually calm and collected Volturi leader looked nearly crazy.

He nodded his head to Jane who stood at his side and a devilish smile appeared on her face as she turned to my father… but nothing happened. You could clearly see how hard she was focusing her power on Carlisle but nothing happened. She gave up a cry of frustration as the three brothers all paled. Aro was just about to say something when Jane suddenly turned her attention to Nessie in my arms, no doubt trying to use her ability on my daughter. The growl coming from my chest along with Jacobs was nothing compared to the growl of pure rage which echoed through the meadow, shaking the ground. Suddenly it was as if the whole world was rapidly changeing.

Bella and her sister appeared out of nowhere in front of me and our family, the sky turned black and the scent of my love and her sister suddenly washed over us. They had used Zafrina's power to hide themselves until the right moment but Jane's attack on Neisse had been the last drop and the look on Bella's face was murderous, her golden eyes black as hell with hate. Then without warning she flew forward and grabbed onto Aro's favorite guard without anyone doing anything, because they couldn´t. Maria had turned Alec's ability to stun his opponent against himself and his masters.

"So you thought you should try to hurt an innocent child now did you Jane?" Bella asked looking down at the now shaking vampire in her grip, "And not just any child, MY child! Can you somehow defense your actions?" Jane didn´t even have a chance to think of an excuse before the sound of ripping limbs was heard and we all saw my love ripping the head off the demon child, then she just threw Jane's now separated head and body on the ground. With one look at her sister the body seemed to catch fire on its own, but really it was Maria using Benjamin's power to control the elements. Then both Bella and Maria turned to Aro, Caius and Marcus who had been relised from their numb state.

"You really thought we were dead?" Mara asked with a mocking tone as she and Bella started circling the three brothers. "How stupid can you get? Not even when we are standing right in front of your faces you wanted to believe that we still exist, Bella gave you the truth and still you make up theories so you don't have to face it."

"I saw myself…" Aro began but Bella interrupted him with a laugh.

"I already told you, our friend can mix with the past, all he had to was to change the memories you had just received and "puff" we were dead. You know, I am surprised that none of you recognized me when I was in Volterra, I must say was a little offended at the time." Bella said.

"You were human, how now that is possible," Caius sneered "and older than last time we saw you."

"Oh, her human form was thanks to me." Maria said and smiled when she saw the confused looks on the three brothers' faces. "So you still don´t know? I am an opposite and I absorb powers, a little funny considering all the power which now is collected in this meadow don't you think Aro?"

"And I still thought you would recognize me; after all should not a father recognize his own daughter?" Bella said with an ice cold tone as everyone froze except for the five ancient vampires. My mind was racing at high speed as all of the pieces fell into place. Maria chancing Aro, the father she hated, him coming after them because they condamned him to this life and the extreme hatred between the three.

Aro didn't seemed faced by Bella's words though, he only starred coldly back at her.

"Neither of you are my daughters, you are nothing but two whores sent to this earth by the devil himself to hunt and hurt our kind, just like you killed your aunt, my sister and Marcus' mate." There was something smug about the way Aro said the last part, almost as if he was purring. Maria and Bella just looked at each other before both of them looked into Marcus face which was twisted with hatred.

"Really?" My love asked sounding thoughtful "Because if I don't remember incorrectly _you _killed your own sister when you found out about hers and your brother's plans on leaving your side to find happiness in the world. Then you told same brother that _we _had killed his mate so he in pure rage would agree on haunting us down. Something he didn't want before."

"What?" Marcus hissed looking at Aro as he was going over what had happened so many years earlier in his mind. He remembered Aro's obsession with haunting down and killing his daughters, his mate asking him if they couldn´t leave the Volturi and him accepting. Then just a few days later Aro coming and telling him his daughters had killed their own aunt in their quest for power and after that his and his brothers own attacking Maria, Bella and Nathaniel just a few hours later.

"They are laying dear brother, trying to turn us against each other." Aro said trying to keep calm but you could hear the underline of panic in his voice.

"Think about it Marcus!" Maria said, getting Marcus's full attention. "Why would we kill our own aunt, the only one in our family who actually loved us? If we had wanted power then why were we running from you, allowing you to build up armies and destroy the Rumanians? We were more than capable of doing that but we didn't…"

"You shall keep your mouth shut!" Caius growled loudly but Maria ignored him.

"They have been laying to you all the time Marcus, you never wanted to haunt us and the only reason you attacked us was because you thought we had killed your mate. I know the feeling, the rage, you know I do! We don´t want to fight you, we are ready letting you go because _we don't blame you_." Maria and Marcus was staring intensely at each other, sending some sort of silent message to the other. Then Maria relaxed a little in her posture and at the same time Marcus hit Aro hard in the chest causing him to fall to the ground.

"I will not kill him; I will give you the pleasure of doing so since you have even more reason to do so then I have, but please make him suffer." Marcus said to Bella and Maria.

"Gladly" Maria said a cruel grin on her face as Marcus gave his former brother one last look and then slowly walked away, already thinking over ways in getting himself killed so he could join his mate in the afterlife. Only the need to avenge his mate had kept him alive, now he knew someone would avenge her death for him and he could finally have peace.

"So it all comes down to this." Aro said as he rose from the ground "You know you can´t win."

"Come on father, your time has run out, it is time for a new era." Bella said lining up next to her sister. For a moment the four vampires just looked intensly at each other, then Aro flew forward, reaching for my loves neck. On pure instinct I moved forward but Maria had already attacked her father, throwing him away from her little sister. Her eyes fixed on Aro.

"You killed Nate; you will not kill Isabella as well!" Aro just laughed at her before he attacked her once again with a wicked grin on his face. At the same time Bella and Caius was still watching each other intensely.

"A small sense of déjà vu don't you think?" My love asked smiling calmly against her enemy.

"Well you have grown up since last time little Isabella, let´s see if you still know how to fight though." cauis answered. Then they moved into an attacking position before they started a complicated dance which turned from offensive movements to defensive faster than you could see. It was both horrifying and enchanting watching the four vampires fight. Their long hair flowing around them, two black, one brown and one bone white cloak of hair. If you hadn´t known any better you could have thought they had been practicing their moments into perfection for just this moment. Still it looked nothing like when Bella and Maria had trained together earlier, the moments were now fiercer and each blow was lethal.

Then suddenly it felt as if time itself slowed down. Aro got a grip on Maria succeeding to sink his teeth into her neck, causing a cry of pain coming from Bella's sister. Bella who had been fighting Caius stopped fighting hearing her sister scream and turned her back to her opponent with a horrifiyed expression. It was as if history was repeating itself, the events the same as they had been 2500 years earlier. The vision of Nathaniel turning to his loves aid and then being ripped to pieces was still fresh in our minds and we could already see what would happen next. I would lose the love of my life forever, but for some reason I couldn't move, none of us could. All we could do was watching in horror as Caius reached forward ready to grab onto my love as her attention was on her sister. Then it was heard, the sound of vampires being ripped to pieces and an ear piercing scream of despair and pain.

I felt how the numbness in my body disappeared and I could once again control my own limbs as Aro ripped his older daughter Maria into pieces while Bella now once again had turned to Caius who she already had separated from both of his arms. The exact moment before Caius had been able to get a hold on my Bella she had turned around, grabbing onto his arm and pulling him to her. Then she had put her right foot on his back as she grabbed his other arm as well and pulled, making him fall onto the ground without any arms to catch him, they were still in her grip. The scream of pure pain had escaped her when she fora second had turned around and saw the pieces which a few seconds earlier had been her sister. Not even the Rumanians had in their long existence seen a more visible pain than Bella's as she saw her older sister being ripped to pieces. But somehow she managed to pull herself together, her face turning into a mask of pure hatred as she turned back to the ancient vampire on the ground.

With a growl she reached down picking him up, him looking horrified, before she literally ripped him in two and threw him into the flames which still consumed what once had been Jane. When he landed in the flames Athenodora, his mate, flew forward reaching for Bella's neck. But living inside of the Volturi castle for so many years and never really being trained in battle, along with her long skirts, made her clumsy for a vampire and my love just grabbed onto Athenodora throwing her on the same fire as Caius. A terrifying scream was heard as Athenodor's long dress caught fire; now slowly allowing the flames to consume and killing its owner.

"So you are not going to run away this time Isabella?" Aro's voice was heard and Bella spun around facing him. Aro was standing next to the flames which a few moments ago had been my sister-in-law and Bella's long lost older sister. He was watching my love with a sick grin spread over his face.

"I have never been running father." It amazed me how Bella could sound so strong and put so much hate into one sentence considering what just had happened, it felt as if the air was vibrating with raw power.

"Come on Isabella, give up and join your sister and brother in oblivion. I promise I will kill you without causing you any unnecessary pain, you cannot win."

"You never learn do you Aro? Your time is up! Or haven´t you noticed, your guard still hasn´t attacked me although they were freed from Alec's gift the same second you ripped Maria apart." It wasn't until now, when Bella said it that I noticed that she was right. Felix, Demetri, Alec and all the other vampires Aro had brought with him was still standing in the same spot as before. Nothing I could read from their minds showed any sign at them attacking my love; instead they were waiting to see how this battle would end, who they would offer their loyalty. Bella or another? The respect they once had had for Aro was long gone and the was no longer an option. Aro probably realized this as well because he paled as he looked at his former guard.

"They have no loyalty to you anymore Aro. They can see who you truly are, someone who has no limits to reach ultimate power. They see one who has killed and destroyed his own family to secure his place on the thrown and the one who does not care about anyone but himself. Caius is dead as well as your demon child Jane. Marcus has left you and will kill you if he ever sees you again. Your reign is over father, accept it!" At her final words Aro flew across the space dividing them, attacking her. But his movements was now desperate and in pure rage, causing him to attack Bella straight on. The one offensive movement we had learned over the past few days you would never ever use.

In less than a second Aro was lying on the ground, Bella holding him down, her hand over his thorat, choking him. But she to our suprise that was all she did, she did not try to kill him, instead she spoke.

"I will not kill you, not because I can't or because you don't deserve it, but because for _you_ death would be an easy way out. I will let you live with the humiliation and pain; I will let you live your worst nightmare. Then if someone else kills you one day, I will personally thank them for doing so. But if you ever try to gain power again I will haunt you down and just so you remember..." She said and got off Aro, her father, before she started walking straight towards the guard. Aro was just lying on the ground before he saw where Bella was headed. But before he had any chance to interfere she had gotten a hold of Sulpicia ending the life of what in real life should have been her step mother.

For a moment it looked like Aro once again was going to attack his daughter, but then all life just seemed to leave him and without a word he turned in the other direction, disappearing into the forest. No more than a ghost of the one he had been just half an hour ago. It was obvious that the battle was over, that we had won, but still no one moved. Not even I knew how I was going to approach my wife as she was staring into the flames which still burned, using her sister as fuel. It felt as if her sorrow slowly was spreading into the world, not leaving anyone untouched. The forest was silent, not even a small breeze of wind blowing. The sky was black with rain clouds and it felt as if time had stopped, the world giving a minute of silence to honor the dead of Bella's sister.

The sound of thunder finally broke the silence as rain started pouring down from the sky, forming the tears which none of us except my daughter and the wolves could cry. I saw how Bella fell onto her knees next to the fire, hiding her face in her hands as she suddenly gave out an ear pircing scream , the pain evident. In my arms I felt Nessie shaking with tears as she hid her face in my chest. When the scream died out Bella locked up, her eyes still looked at the purple flames. She wrapped her arms around her chest, just like i had sen her do in Jacbo's memories after I had left. The flames relcted in her glossy eyes which looked dead and for a second I nearly thought she would leave us all behind, following her sister into the flames. But the nex second her hands reached around her neck and then I saw something in her hands. A stone with countless of cracks and a red fire, barely visible but still burning in the middle; Marias' heart. She was still alive!

"I promised to let you go and I will. Please say Hallo to Nate for me when you see him will you?" She whispered to the heart and the red flame grew a little in power, a soft smile spreading over Bella's face when she realized her sister could still hear her. "I love you Mia and thank you for my family."

With those final words Bella carefully placed her sister heart in the flames and when she drew her hand back I saw that her white hand had been burned by the flames. As the fire consumed what was left of the ancient it was as if the smoke from the fire started twisting into new shapes and so fast that you couldn´t be sure of what you had seen, it looked like the smoke was forming the figures of a woman running into the arms of a man before they both waved in our direction, disappering. Bella rose gracefully from the ground before she slowly walked across the meadow not stopping until she had reached me and her daughter. Nessie reached forward and without a word I allowed her to wrap her arms around Bella's neck. Bella gladly took her in her arms and I saw how she inhaled her scent. Then I wrapped my arms around my love as well, trying to give her some sort of comfort.

After a few seconds I let her go and looked down into her eyes, which were tiered but calm.

"It is over." She said looking at our family and friends. "Lets go home."

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**Okay so there you have it and I really hope you liked it :) There will be a final chapter which will tie togehter the lose ends and also give you all a better ending. **

**Please review this chapther, I am really eager in finding out you opinion on it! :) And also I want to know if any of you had figured out if Aro was Bella's father, no one have mentioned it so I am curios ;)**

**/Love Lysistrate**


	12. Epilogue: Life goes on

**So the last chapter everyone. I am both glad and sad that my first story is finished. It feels kind of weird. Anyway I am glad how this chapter came out, it feels like a good ending. **

**Hope you like it as much as I do. Enjoy!**

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**Epilogue**

**Bella´s POV  
**"Mom look what uncle Jasper and auntie Alice gave me!" I saw Renesmee running over to me where I was standing next to Edward, watching as our daughter opened up her birthday presents. It was her first birthday ever and nearly a year had passed by since I lost my sister, and defeated my father and his brothers in the process.

"It's wonderful Neisse but shouldn´t you thank Jazz and Alice?" I said after I had inspected the necklace she held in her hand. It was a golden heart with the Cullen crest engraved with tiny diamonds. Obviously Alice had decided not to listen when I told her not to go overboard; Nessie was after all just one year old even if she looked like ten. Her extreme growth sprout had finally stopped and even though she still grew faster than any other child it wouldn´t be so noticeable any longer, not that we had been worried.

Just a few hours after Aro had been defeated Alice and Jasper had, to our surprise and joy, returned and with them they had brought a dhampier, just like Neisse, and his aunt.

Everyone had been very shocked but suddenly we knew why Alice left us in our time of need and there were no hurt feelings. We had also learned what we had to expect in Neisse's future and the relief we all had felt when we learned that Nessie wouldn´t die young had been so strong that Jasper nearly fainted. That Emmett still teased him for.

After the battle it had taken some time before everyone left our home and during that time nearly everyone had left me alone. They had understood that it had been my time to grieve over my sister death. I still had a hole in my heart and each time I thought of Maria it would begin to hurt and each time, just like now, Jasper would look at me with worry in his eyes. In the beginning he had been afraid of the immense pain I sometimes felt, but I had talked to him about it and he had dropped the subject. Well at least to some degree.

Edward who noticed Jasper´s glance looked down at me and gave me small kiss on my forehead; it eased the pain a little. He knew. He always did. Part of it was because I hadn´t allowed him to give me my heart back, but mostly because of the love and bond we shared.

My heart he now kept it in a chain around his neck and sometimes I would see him staring worriedly at the small crack which had appeared after my sister's death and now was visible.

"Mom, could we go visit Mia now?" My daughter suddenly said from the place where she sat on Jacob´s back looking at me with a beaming smile. I smiled right back.

"Of course honey." I said before we all, together, walked towards the meadow which now was full of so many painful memories. Still it warmed me more than anything when I saw my family together. Nessie was riding piggy back on Jacob as he and Emmett once again was telling the other some lame joke, both of them laughing. Rosalie and Leah (who to all of our surprise had found each other!) who walked behind them were rolling their eyes at the "boys", showing the rest of the world how silly they thought their husband and friend were. Seth was walking next to Carlisle and Esme while Alice and Jasper was closest to me and Edward. Everyone spoke and laughed, getting along like a real family. They were all happy and so was I.

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When we reached the meadow the light and happy mood was replaced by light sorrow. Nessie jumped down from Jacob´s back and was the first to reach the tree we had planted on the spot where my sister had died. Just like my daughter it had grown with an amazing speed and was already higher than many of its neighbors. Its pink flowers were beginning to fall off as the tree was preparing itself for the winter and when a small breeze came through the meadow the air was filled with pink little petals. It had become a tradition for our family to return to this place when we felt that there was something we wanted to share with our lost family member or when we needed someone to talk to.

"Hi Auntie Mia!" My daughter began. "Today it is my birthday and I just wanted to come here and thank you for what you did for our family, your family. We all miss you, mom more than anyone." She looked at me for a second when she said that and then she turned her eyes back to tree.

"But I think she is okay, she comes out here and talks to you a lot, but I am not going to ask you what she says since I think that is private. Although I know that she usually comes out here to calm down when uncle Em is getting on her nerves." Emmett chuckled at that. "I just wanted you to know that we are okay and that I miss you. Love you auntie Mia!" My daughter said and kissed the tree before she started walking back to us, but before she reached us her eyes locked on something behind us and she froze, eyes turning big. Before anyone else even had time to react I had turned around in an attacking position and took in the scene before me. At the edge of the woods stood a hooded figure holding a golden egg in its hands and on his cloak there was a small pattern of flowers woven into the fabric. I remembered that pattern and it caused me to relax in the same moment as the rest of my family tensed, showing how much faster my reflexes really were.

"Calm down, he is a friend." I said looking at the figure with a smile on my face.

"But Bella, I can´t see him." Alice said next to me sounding worried and for a second I looked at her.

"Sure you can Alice, but my friend here likes to mix with others past. Am I not right Xin Szu?" I said directing the last part to the vampire I knew was standing before us. The figure sighed before it reached up and allowed its hood to fall from its head. Before us stood a middle aged Asian man with black hair, in which you could see a few sliver strings. He had read eyes, his skin was not as white as our own and he was not much taller than me. But he still had the same presence as all ancient vampires had.

"You caught me young Bella," His accent was thick even after all these years "and I apologize to you, young Alice, for worrying you, but I wanted my arrival to be a surprise to my old friend." He had closed the distance between us as he spoke and now he took Alice's hand in his own, pulled it up to his lips and gave it a light kiss. He then let go of her hand and gave Alice such a warm smile that she had no other choice than to smile back at him with the same warmth and a slightly dazed look.

Jasper on the other hand was staring at Xin Szu with such a dark look in his eyes it caused me to giggle. Xin had always been a ladies' man and he sure had the looks to pull it off. The worst part was that _he_ knew he had the looks at well.

"So I am an old friend, but still I am young?" I asked Xin, still amused with the effect he had on my sister. I had never been affected by his charm as all other women, including vampires, and sometimes I had questioned if he didn´t have more than one power.

"Just an expression dear Bella" Xin said his eyes sparkling "and I must say you look even lovelier than last time I saw you." He reached out his hand and I gladly took it. Then he spun me around before he spun me right into his arms, causing me to laugh and giving him a big hug. I could sense that Edward wasn't bothered, not much at least, but it had always been obvious to others around us that there was nothing more than deep friendship in mine and Xin's relationship.

"And I can see that your sister's attempt to change you worked, you have grown up." His statement shocked me a little.

"You knew about my change?" I asked and he nodded.

"Yes I met Mia a few years ago and we talked about a lot of things." He said his eyes glancing towards the tree. He already knew. "And that conversation is actually the reason I am here. I have gift to your daughter from your sister." He said and I didn´t even ask him how Mia could have known about Nessie even before we did, she had always been a mystery to everyone and sometimes even to herself. Instead I just looked at my daughter with a small smile and she carefully left Jacob´s side and walked over to the ancient vampire. I could see that Jacob didn´t like it, but one look from me and he relaxed.

"What´s your name young one?" Xin asked my daughter.

"Renesmee"

"And how old are you?" At this Nessie rolled her eyes.

"I am one." I saw the shocked look in Xin´s eyes before he wished my daughter a happy birthday and gave her the golden egg. She stared at it for a second, confused, before she politely thanked Xin for the present and continued inspecting the egg. The egg surely was beautiful, but I could see the doubting look in her eyes which was sheared with the rest of my family. Not even I knew what it was, but I didn´t like the smug look in Xin´s eyes when he winked at me. Then I noticed something, a small crack which had appeared on the egg.

"Xin is that a…" I never had the time to finish before the small crack I had seen suddenly grew in size and it sounded as if something hard was hitting against the inside of the egg. Nessie dropped it and in a second Edward was at her side glaring at Xin who was still looking at me. Once on the ground the egg cracked in two and a small creature fell out. A baby dragon!

It was golden with wings nearly as big as its own body. The small dragon gave up a little squeak when it tried taking a step forward and fell on the ground in a failed attempt. Before Edward had time to react our daughter had left his side picking up the tiny dragon her arms. Surprised it opened its eyes which were like golden deep pools and suddenly the dragon looked much older than it really was, just like I did. The eyes focused on my daughter before the dragon gave up content little squeak and made itself comfortable in her arms, staring at the rest of our family with curiosity.

"You have got to be kidding with me" I finally managed to say and Xin looked as if he was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Actually I am not, your sister told me that your daughter probably one day would want a pet and since it would be hard for her to have a normal pet Maria thought a dragon would be perfect."

"She is going to be enormous." I said still wondering how I was going to tell my daughter that she couldn't keep her new friend, because they were obviously already bonding. When Emmett had tried to touch the dragon it had turned around and bit his finger, hard, and when it finally had let go you could see the trace of tiny sharp teethes. For those who knew it, it wasn't a surprise that dragon's could hurt vampires. Their skin was even harder then ours and their claws and teeth stronger and sharper than any other material known on earth.

The little dragon had though accepted both Jacob and Edward and it already looked with Nessie with adoring eyes. The worst part was that my daughter was staring back at the tiny dragon with the same look in her eyes.

"Not really." Xin said. "She is a miniature type of dragon and will only be the size of a small horse."

"Really, then there is no problem." The sarcasm in my voice was clear and Xin chuckled a little.

"You really think Mia would give you daughter a present she couldn´t handle?" He asked and I knew he was right. She wouldn´t have given Nessie anything she couldn´t handle, and why don't allow an extraordinary child to have an extraordinary pet?

"You are right." I said "So how long will you be staying?"

"Not for long." Xin said and I felt how my face fell. "But not because I don´t want to, but because there is someone I want you to meet and she couldn´t come with me this time." The look on his face had become adoringly and I reached forward to give him a hug and a kiss on his cheek before he left, telling him I was looking forward to his next visit. I was the only one who noticed him leaving and turned back to my daughter which now was surrounded by our family. The tiny dragon was once again on the ground now managing to walk a few steps, but it was still squeaking now and then. Then it scrunched its nose together and sneezed which caused a few flames to escape its mouth. I had to admit it looked absolutely adorable.

"Okay everyone listen up" I said and everyone looked at me, even the small dragon. To all of our surprise it hurried over the ground when it heard my voice, suddenly being able to run on its little legs, and sat down at my feat, looking up at me with big begging eyes. I was the first one except my daughter it had wanted contact with willingly and all the others stared at the little creature. With a small sigh I bent down and lifted up the tiny dragon in hands to eye level. I stared into its warm golden eyes and saw traces of my own staring back at me. With a sigh I cradled the tiny dragon in my arms as it laid its head over my joined hands. So now I had become the dragon mom… great.

"First of all I have something very important to ask Nessie. What are you going to name your new friend?"

"You mean I can keep her?" My daughters face beamed with joy and excitement.

"Yes you can, but you will have take care of her each day, every week and year is that clear?" My daughter nodded eagerly, her bronze looks dancing around her head. "The discipline part I will take care of." I said smiling at Nessie. No one else would be able to train the little monster now when it saw me as it´s mother anyway.

"Then I name her… Solar, after the sun since she shines like the sun. Do you like that?" Nessie asked the dragon in my arms and Solar seemed to consider her new name before she gave a small squeak in approval and reached out one of her claws in a demanding way towards my daughter as she tried to get out of my arms, causing everyone to laugh. With a smile I allowed Nessie to take her new friend.

We stayed in the meadow for a few more minutes and before we left, Nessie once again ran forward to my sister's memorial tree, thanking it for her present. I asked Edward to stay behind with me and when everyone had left I looked at the tree myself before I walked forward and sank to my knees in front of it.

"I just wanted you to know that I am thankful for what you did. I am thankful for that you thought about what would become of us even after your death and I am thankful for that you were ready to give your life so we could live. Aro is dead; they found his burning remains a few days ago. I don´t know who killed him but I don´t care either, all I hope is that you are happy and that you have found Nate again. Something tells me that you have. I love you." With those words I kissed the tree, just like my daughter had done, and walked over to Edward who laid his arm around my shoulders.

"Do you ever..." he trailed off looking at my sister's tree and I knew what he meant.

"No, I never wish I had followed her. You, our daughter and our family are my world and I wouldn´t trade that for anything. Ever!" I reached up and kissed him lightly as I felt how the fire which always burned in me when we touched grew in power just like the kiss. There was no way in a million years I would give this up, not being with the man I loved more than anything was an unbearable thought. Then suddenly the anxious voice of Emmett was heard, interrupting us.

"Uhm Bella, how old is dragons when they start flying?" Amused Edward smiled at me as I laughed loudly. Holding hands we both ran towards our family and our future.

**The End****  
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**Love Lysistrate**


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